This is a post about the ways in which my Instagram activity has changed in, with and because of the pandemic.⠀
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The Posting – Slowing down. When I had a much smaller audience, I was super zealous to ‘get there’ with a hectic overdrive of two to three fresh posts everyday. Man, we had some chaos energy pre-2020. Now, I only post fresh content when I truly have a meaningful idea that I want to share, something that I’m excited about and have stewed over for days. Earlier, I’d style, click, edit, post all in one go. Enjoying the process of styling, editing, researching, and practicing quality over quantity is my motto now – with an exception of impromptu moments or throwbacks. Thank god for throwbacks. ⠀
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The Commenting – Absolutely no criticism intended, this is a highly subjective personal choice. Our priorities change with our positions, and this is me practicing frugality with very low energy reserves given the situation we’re in. Please don’t take this as advice, just a personal anecdote. I cannot comment on posts just for the sake of engagement favours or having comments back on mine, not anymore. I know, the new algorithm sucks for beginner creators. I do my invisible fairy things of DMing the work of small businesses to a person who’s actually looking to buy, or recommending another blogger to a collaboration that I am unable to do, things which nobody knows I’m doing but I’m doing! There was a time when I’d comment on upto thirty accounts a day, I was sucked into the vortex of the engagement game. When you comment on someone’s work for the sake of it, it shows. And the inauthenticity of it drains me! If I comment on your picture, it’s only because I was truly moved. Even if I Like your picture, I TRULY enjoyed it, because I actually go to my ‘Posts You’ve Liked’ section to revisit stuff. Thus, I’m careful about Likes. For me, what’s the difference between Instagram and those painful pre-Covid family gatherings where your cheeks hurt from fake smiling for hours if I’m expending all my energy in obligatory commenting to keep up a facade? Social media is also energy exchange, and when it’s deeply enmeshed with your business – as it is for me – it can tire you out and overwhelm you very much. I’ve consciously decided to try to share more posts to my story from other content creators if I super like something I see. It feels great when it’s done for me, and I want to do this too for posts I truly resonate with!⠀
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The Aesthetic – Foregoing the ‘look of the feed,’ leaning in to ‘individual post authenticity.’ I’ve begun to notice that we have so much more interaction and connection with a single post that we scroll past them, than we do with how someone’s entire feed looks. I know some hugely successful accounts that don’t have a very perfect, cohesive and aesthetic feed, and the reason behind their success is focusing on putting something REAL out there. In this time that we’re living in, we have truly begun resonating with, relating to, and seeking authenticity much more than hyper-glossy aspirational feeds that our comparatively mindless pre-Covid life idealized. I love the asymmetry of your exposed white grids, your random doggo pictures, your unfiltered pictures, your unglamorous homewear, your lockdown cooking, your oversharing of mental health troubles even. Instagram has become real, and real-er, and I’m living for it. ⠀
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The Moolah – Refusing collaborations I don’t vibe with and gifts that I don’t need. I speak of the good and evil in this rather chaotic, unorganised and yet booming business of monetised Instagram accounts in India today in this post and the one right after it. Do visit for some personal experience anecdotes about working with brands as an influencer.
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The Following – I follow lesser and lesser brands, my ‘following’ has dropped from 800 to about 400 accounts, which is also way too much more than the ten or so accounts I actually see on my feed everyday. I just ‘Save’ the work of IG brands to a folder so I remember them when I need to shop, this helps keep it super organized and makes their products unforgettable. Besides, I get too tempted to spend all my money if they’re constantly on my feed, my wallet is especially slippery when the wine goes in.⠀
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The Messaging – I take my time to respond to most DMs because it’s simply an unfair expectation to expect somebody to be online 24×7, isn’t it? This morning, I read an article by Pramod Pathak in The Speaking Tree which very impactfully mentioned how the ‘right to disconnect‘ as a formal legal legislation is necessary in these times. I could not agree more. What feels illegal but isn’t? Simply being human and feeling too overwhelmed to text people back, but scrolling anyway. I only actually reply to two or three people on my DM a day who happen to be my real life loved ones. I spend a lot of energy replying to sale enquiries, I see all of my messages though, and know that I’m always smiling, sending love and good vibes to those of you who drop in simply to say something kind. I do not send good vibes to DMs that should have been a Google search. And if you’re an unknown man sending me sleazy texts, thank you for the entertainment my girlfriends and I are having with your screenshots on our Zoom cocktail hour.⠀
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The Sareeing – I try to drape sarees for my online class days, although it’s difficult because they’re early in the morning – and how will I enjoy the one perk of video lectures, i.e literally tumbling out of bed thirty minutes before class and still being able to be a good teacher, if I have to wake up way earlier and get sareeing as if I’m going to physical school? I’m noticing a lot of saree bloggers talk about how they just don’t feel like draping a saree for Instagram pictures anymore. I see you, I hear you, I feel you. We all have phases, I suppose, and spending a lot of energy in sareeing everyday just for a picture is something I’m just not feeling right now – I’d rather cook or paint or read or just lay around in my comfy homewear. But the occasional days when I do it, they’re precious and much more intensely enjoyed!⠀

The Themes – WE HAVE SO MANY HASHTAG THEMES. It’s crazy how many I see tagged on a single post, and I respect how much patience and effort some of you put in to tag and keep track of so many. I think we should now have a forum where all the hundreds of blogger generated themes are reported so that we know what the hell is going on and when. I love witnessing all the creative ideas, and I can attest from experience that having a successful theme can work beautifully for growing your blog! Themes are healthy and beautiful curations, but I hope we all recognize that not everybody is on the same wavelength of content creation during this lockdown. I run themes, I notice others’ themes, but I would hate it if we attach a heavy sense of obligation to these movements. I’d never imply or make you feel like you ‘have to’ take part in a theme I run, nor hold a grudge if you couldn’t. I wouldn’t even ask you why you didn’t take part, to be honest. Creativity is beautiful when it’s allowed to ebb and flow. In a lockdown and global pandemic, we’re all coping differently and life is wildly throwing things at us every month. Uncertainty is everywhere. For some, there is comfort, escape and respite in dressing up for the ‘gram and participating in all the themes they can. That feels beautiful and makes you feel less isolated, indeed. For some, being off the hook with having to ‘show up’ for the ‘gram, and focusing on how they can cope best with their day-to-day reality brings comfort. For all of us, both these moods co-exist, both these moods come and go at their own will. We’re ever changing, ever evolving, dynamic beings and it’s okay to allow ourselves, and others, to be this. We can’t tell someone else how they should be coping, or expect that our coping mechanism must be theirs too.

The DND Mode – I haven’t kept my Instagram notifications on in years, I’d truly go crazy if I did. I keep my phone on DND most of the day, so that I’m consuming notifications and information only when I choose to. We forget boundaries too easily in this increasingly digital world, and I find it deeply unsettling and even disheartening when I see people on Instagram apologise for not posting, not having come online or not being active on the ‘gram for a few days or a few themes. Since when is showing up on a digital application made of not even dust but pixels more important, serious, and obligatory than showing up for your living, breathing self in your real life? What about showing up for your own mental health by using your technology as and when you please, irrespective of what other people on there are thinking? Why are the real world space-and-time things we’re doing in this fragile, temporary human existence that we’re born into now called an ‘escape’ from the ‘gram – an electronic arrangement of our own creation? Why are we apologising to an invisible audience that is also, quite rightfully, focused on their own lives and are the least affected by our absence from this application? It REALLY boggles the mind.

The Whole Space – Seeing the world shut down has made me see the uncertainty of human life and the resilience of our spirit so much more than ever before. One thought often comes to my mind: What if, someday, Instagram shuts down? Like TikTok just did, for us at least. All this seriousness, self-importance, stress, strategy, what is it for? I’m getting too existential, sorry haha. But, I really want to focus on writing more blog posts henceforth, because my blog – where you are right now – is my prime real estate on the internet. It’s my space, rightfully mine. Instagram is borrowed space. It can all disappear someday and I would feel very sad if it did. But, I never want to lose out on being connected to you, my beautiful and ever-so-supportive audience, and having you come over here to this website to visit my content as often as I can is a practice I’d love to cultivate!

Has your relationship with Instagram changed over the course of this lockdown? Please enrich my post with your experiences in comments! You can choose to comment right here, or go back to my post on Instagram to share your mind food. Thank you!