My Alternative to Instagram

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For the month of July I log off of social media (Instagram is the only platform I actively use) for what we call the Social Media Reset at Best Today®. We’re less than 2 weeks into July (at the time that I’m writing this) and once again I am reminded of how much more I enjoy life without Instagram.

I follow zero people outside of my company on my business account, I have boundaries for when I am online, and yet with those borders in place, I see how much more time I have when I am not reaching to post, engage, or see what some of my favorite Peloton instructors are up to.

The good news is that most of the people who I enjoy on Instagram have other options to connect—podcasts, private communities, or email newsletters, to name a few. I am able to connect and engage in the ways that work best for me and risk missing out on the 5% good to simultaneously let go of the 95% waste of my time.

Within the first week of July our family traveled out of town twice and I was able to read 2 books, totaling about 700 pages. Scrolling on Instagram wasn’t an option and I prepared for July with twelve books on hold at the library!

All of this to say, I’ve hinted at walking away from Instagram in the long run many times in the past, but now I am building my alternative to move closer to that farewell day.

Why build an alternative?

I was one of the last people I knew to join Instagram in 2012. I joined for one reason—my husband I were headed to London for our anniversary and I wanted to share photos with friends and family since we would be gone for a week. Close friends of ours had just had a newborn also and I wanted to see each and every picture of his chubby cheeks that our friends shared on Instagram.

Fast forward, 2014-2015 Instagram played a huge role in allowing me to leave the practice of law. I built a business by connecting with customers and promoting products solely (at first) on Instagram. It was a platform that allowed me to connect with other moms, with friends from high school, college, and law school all in one place. It was a platform to share photos and engage.

I enjoy and enjoyed a photo sharing platform. I enjoy sharing with friends, family, and the community of people that I have cultivated over the last decade. But, I don’t want to share in a place that has such a negative effect on the well-being of the people I serve (I work with people ages 30-57 on average, some younger, some older, and a consistent complaint is about the negative effects of social media, particularly Instagram). I don’t want to depend on a platform that is, in may ways, at odds with who I am and what I teach.

I don’t want to depend on a platform that is, in many ways, at odds with who I am and what I teach.

I enjoy sharing the fort that my children and I built (and sometimes I won’t because we had so much fun there was never a photo taken. Don’t read one sentence to mean the opposite can’t also be true at times), I enjoy sharing the roller coaster that made me scream with joy and terror, and the like. These simple, every day things connect me to this community.

I share what it looks like to honor the season that I’m in as an invitation for others to honor the season that they’re in.

I share with the caveat that comparison is the thief of self. My shares aren’t “look at me!” they’re “look at you! let my joy, my lesson learned, my humanity, my intentionality be a mirror for you to uncover what it is you may need.” My shares are, “this is something that is working for me, here it is in case it works for you.”

I share to be a light in this world because if light is hidden, it is hidden from those who need it most.

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All of this to say, I think I’ve found an alternative that feels good to me, requires no algorithm and the only way you’ll see it is if you make the effort to do so. No ads, no content you didn’t ask for, just me and my intentionally lived life.

You can find it here.

Short captures shared sporadically each week. My alternative to Instagram.

How is that different from your online publication here?

Great question! Think of my posts on shuntagrant.com/living as my way of sharing parts of my every day living with you with a photo and a caption that can be two words or 50, whatever I feel in the moment that I sit down to share.

This online publication, For Those on the Journey, is for my writings and audio conversations with those who want to go deeper on this journey of living a life of intention. While nothing that I do is surface level or superficial, An Intentional Alternative is for photo sharing, this space is for us to go deeper together. As an analogy, think of it as the difference between an online magazine vs. (the 2013) Instagram. Two separate functions and purposes.

I welcome you to follow along on my website if it excites you and is worth your time. I share the options, you pick what works best for your life, your season, your time. Deal?