I wish I could say this was a hard decision to make but it’s honestly not. I’m deleting my creator Instagram account on March 1st. I don’t really plan on opening it ever again. All further updates regarding my comics or anything else will be posted here on my blog.
I hate social media for many reasons, from isolating us to feeding us infuriating garbage just because it brings more engagement. I’ve been using Facebook since 2007 when we all signed up in college. It was a completely different platform back then, that looked awesome with all the ways it let us connect and share our interests. Instagram wasn’t that bad either until a few years ago. Now, both are a nightmare with ads and same videos being shoved in our faces over and over again.
I already left social media in 2022 when I went on a break from Instagram and Twitter, after feeling drained from using these two platforms. And I felt great during that time. I returned last year, and quickly deleted my Twitter again, for good. I gave Instagram another chance and in the end it turned out to be working worse than ever before. My hate of social media aside, I’m too tired to chase trends and draw fanart so that I could reach people that actually only care about those trends and that fanart. I’m gaining more by spending my time and energy drawing than by wasting it on hoping the stars will align and I’ll pick the right moment to post the right things and reach an audience on these platforms. I’d much rather create art than “content” to feed the machine.
Am I leaving Instagram entirely?
As much as I would love to, sadly, I’m only deleting my public, creator profile. There are people I’m connected with only through my private Facebook and Instagram accounts. Some of them are only on one of the two platforms so I can’t really delete either.
But how will you reach people as a comic creator?
Well, am I reaching people right now? No. All of the comic creators I’m connected with I can reach elsewhere. All of my readers were never on Instagram to begin with, they only read the comic on Tapas and Webtoon. How will I promote my comics? I don’t know. I’ll keep on posting it and maybe someone will tell someone else about a cool comic they found. Maybe I’ll find other ways. It’s not like Instagram is working for me right now, in any case. There’s nothing lost here. Except my time and energy.
And I’m done wasting them.