Why I Don’t Follow a Lot of People on IG

I am always surprised by the number of people that always comment on the amount of people I am following on Instagram — and for the record, it’s under 100. I never actually knew that people cared and/or even paid attention to it and so I thought today would be a good post to talk about it a bit.

I’ll admit, when Instagram first became the big “thing” I followed just about everyone. I probably had about 700 people I followed at some point and I’ll be honest and say after some time, all it felt like was a big damn competition.

I was starting off my blog and really wanting to make an impact and do what I love but I would catch myself constantly comparing to other girls, bloggers, businesses and people in general. It started to become something really toxic for me and I couldn’t help it because as soon as I opened up my phone it was just all there in front of me.

I’m not sure this makes sense to everyone but hopefully I can help you all understand.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, Instagram is a place where people share the best parts of their lives. At least when it comes to bloggers it seems like they are all living extravagant lives with designer handbags, traveling the world and well, NO worries. I’m the first to admit, that this is not the case and it took me a while to understand that this is just what people want you to see, not reality. We all have bad days, we all struggle, we cry and we feel like we are having a meltdown. It’s just life regardless of the career path you’d chosen!

I remember talking to my mother at the time and I would say things like, “I just really want to work with <insert brand name>” or “why does this girl have more followers than me” or “am I pretty enough?” or “skinny enough?” The human mind can play some pretty f#$&*ed up games with you and I was definitely struggling with it. I was down on myself a lot and it just wasn’t healthy. One of the best pieces of advice she had ever given me was to stop looking at everyone and start focusing on me. That’s when I took matters into my own hands and just deleted everyone that I didn’t personally know and kept my IG a place for ME. In doing this, I literally went back to the reason why I started this blog in the first place and it brought back all the joy I once had. Ever since, I’ve stayed in my lane, stayed true to myself and although I have moments of weakness (as we all do) I am confident in what I’m doing and more importantly, HAPPY with what I am doing.

I sometimes go on brand trips and events with other bloggers and they talk about “this” blogger and “that” blogger and then will ask if I know them. Honestly, the usual answer is, “no.” It boggles my mind because I swear I get the dirtiest looks from these girls and they even kind of get mad at me for the fact that I don’t know this super popular blogger with 1 million followers because I am a blogger myself. To me its the most bizarre thing. I never started my blog to follow everyone else. I did it (and continue to do it) for ME and all my readers. No one should make you feel crappy because you don’t know who someone else is that happens to be in the field you’re in. I mean, if you were a doctor, would you know every doctor out there in the same field? I highly doubt it..

I just thought this was a great topic to touch on because honestly when it comes to Instagram, it’s just an app. People don’t deserve more or less respect based on how many followers they have and/or who they are following. I also hope people are never offended by the fact that I don’t follow a lot of people. It is nothing negative on them, it’s just the way I’ve chosen to live my social life, keep a bit of normalcy and how I feel I stay in my lane best. Always treat others with respect and just because that number on IG goes up, do as your mother once taught you and treat everyone the way you’d like to be treated.

It will truly go a LONG way.

Love, Olia

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