Towards the end of last year, Jess Ann Kirby revealed to her Instagram followers that she would be leaving the social media app for two weeks. Fans of her content were confused since Kirby was a popular influencer who made the majority of her income through posting. So why exactly did she leave? Here's the tea.
Kirby was drained from all the content creation. She felt like most of her time was spent scrolling mindlessly through IG, which ultimately made her less creative. She was tired of spending so much time on one post only to barely get feedback due to the Instagram algorithm - even though she had nearly 170 thousand followers. After her break from the app, Kirby said her mental health was feeling much better. She explained to Buzzfeed News, "In just a few weeks, I had so much mental clarity, to the point where I realized, it's almost like Instagram was giving me brain fog, because it's just so consuming."
That's when she realized her short break needed to be longer. Now she is spending 2022 slowly removing herself from being an Instagram influencer. "As the years have gone on and Instagram has changed, it's feeling less and less like it's a good fit for me personally and from a business perspective," Kirby shared. "Financially, it's incredibly rewarding, but it's gotten to the point where it's starting to feel like it's not worth it anymore." Sometimes mental health is more important than financial gains! And Kirby isn't the only influencer who thinks so. Many content creators have admitted their discontentment with Instagram in the past few years. Specifically with the algorithm and how some posts never reach intended audiences. Slowly, many have moved their platform over to Tiktok, where posts are geared towards the audience creators want, and in return, boosting activity and profit for both the app and the creators.
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In 2021, fashion blogger Natalie Borton had nearly 500,000 followers, but she also left the platform. Along with home renovation bloggers Anna and Gabe Liesemeyer, who recently started to slowly step away from the app. More and more influencers are taking a stand and being their own bosses - and we can't wait to see what happens next! Stay tuned.