Last summer, I stepped away from Instagram.

At the time, it felt like a necessary experiment, and an opportunity to understand who I was, how I created, and how I connected with people outside of a platform that had been part of my daily life for over a decade. What began as a response to creative exhaustion and ethical questions about social media quickly became a much deeper exploration of community, attention, identity, and the subtle ways these platforms shape our inner worlds.

This episode is a reflection on what I learned by stepping away, why I decided to come back, and how I'm approaching social media differently moving forward. It's a conversation about creativity, consumerism, belonging, self-expression, and the very human desire to be seen and understood.

Most of all, it's an invitation to consider your own relationship with social media and whether the ways you're showing up online are truly aligned with the life you're trying to build offline.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why I left Instagram for nearly a year
• The ethical questions that initially motivated my departure
• What happened to my community, business, and relationships while I was away
• Alternative spaces for connection and meaningful conversation
• The impact of visual stimulation on creativity and attention
• Social media, influence, and consumer culture
• The pressure to be visible online
• Creative expression versus content creation
• Why your business may not need social media as much as you think
• The desire to be seen, known, and understood
• Building a private inner life in a public world
• How I'm approaching social media moving forward
• How some parts of life become more meaningful when they're allowed to remain private.

Mentioned

• ⁠Social Life⁠ by Xanthe Appleyard
• ⁠Supernova⁠ by Chelsea Riffe
• ⁠The Apprenticeship⁠ with Gianna