First, an explanation: I am not going to pretend that I don’t care about the folks that would follow me on Instagram. I’m really happy about any signs of interest in my work. Positive feedback gives me wings and motivation, and the connections I’ve made on social media have brought a lot of good stuff into my life.

But here’s a note, an unpopular opinion: my life (or creativity) does not depend on this.

If it did, after 2.5 years of taking photos and growing my account from about 300 to 570 followers, I would have given up on both the photography and the social media.

On the other hand, thanks to Instagram, I started my photography journey and learned a lot by observing other photographers at work (though definitely not as much as from watching YouTube). So, I wouldn’t demonize this medium completely.

At the end of the year, I wanted to give my instagram account a boost.

I started with one picture a day challenge, which after some time turned into carousels. After a while, it transformed into weekly carousels, and I extended regular posting by sharing thematic series with covers. At some point, I also started creating reels.

And nothing really spectacular happened. Over the three months, I gained a few (or more than a few) followers. My reach increased for a while (to about 18k views per month), then decreased (to 14k). Maybe my amateur reels weren’t enough to break through to the explore page. Maybe my photos didn’t hit the taste of my existing followers and potential “target” audience, and they weren’t clickable enough. Maybe my “tactic” was just terrible and didn’t have a chance to make it through the crowd.

All fine.

But something has changed.

It coincided with quite an interesting experience.

The last three months were also three months of daily photography. And the results of this, I suddenly felt that I’m starting to develop as a photographer. I am more confident that this is the direction I want to go in.

At the same time – with each day and each new post, especially in the last few weeks, I began to feel that the urgent need to immediately post photos on social media was leaving me slowly. I felt like I was letting go.

Has Instagram completely bored me?

I don’t know. For now, I want to invest all my energy and time into developing this blog. I want to deliver content here that will have meaning and value for people seeking something more than just quick entertainment.

I also hope this marks the beginning of a new, healthier relationship with social media and a mobile phone in general. Ultimately, I would like my phone to serve me to contact people when I feel the need.

But it’s the camera I would like to hold in my hands the most.