The Advice Column III

569

Advice Request
This person is confused whether they should get an instagram account or not.

Answered Submission
Hey!

Those are all valid reasons for not having social media, and honestly, I think it’s admirable for someone not to have an Instagram account, especially if your friends all have one.

I know you’re looking for someone’s input, but my advice would be to do what you want to do in terms of Instagram.

If you want to create one so that you have more ways of staying in contact with your friends, then you can. The thing with any kind of social media is that you have complete control over it, so you control what you post and how frequently you post or go on it. You don’t even have to post anything on it; if you want to create it just to stay in contact with people, then that’s okay too. If you do create an account, but after a while don’t want it anymore, you can easily delete the app or delete your account completely. Again, you have that control.

If you don’t want to create one, then that’s also your decision. Since you have Snapchat, I assume you have a phone, so you can still keep in contact with your friends through messaging and phone calls. Plus, if you’re old enough for Instagram and Snapchat, then Facebook is also another option to keep in touch with people.

At the end of the day, all of this is your decision. In terms of the things that you’re worried about, there are ways to control it all. So, for worrying about getting addicted, set yourself certain times to check it, or set yourself a limit for how much time you spend on it. Once you reach that limit, don’t look at it anymore. In terms of your self-esteem, only follow positive people who you like and who will be a positive influence on you. You’re also not obligated to post anything about yourself if you don’t want to, and again, you’re in control of what you post. You can also set your profile to private so then you can control who you allow to follow you and see your posts.

Only you can make the decision of whether you create an account or not. Just keep in mind that there are plenty of options (as I have mentioned above) that allow you to have control over your social media. Just bear in mind that if you do create one, you might have a small period of feeling “addicted” to it. This is because it’ll be a new thing in your life, and you might want to keep checking to see who has posted and what people are doing so that you can keep yourself up to date with everyone. You might feel a need to post too, and all of that is fine; it happens to everyone who starts something new, but eventually that will fade. When I first created an Instagram (years ago), I also felt like I should upload every day. Now I barely post and only post stuff when I want to because I have control over it—nobody else but me does.

I hope this helps,

The Advice Column Team