# Digital Minimalism: The Experience of Leaving Instagram - Month 5 Update

> The continuation of the state of quitting Instagram and an interesting phenomenon after 5 months - final update

2025-01-21 · Alireza Azadi · https://a-azadi.blog/en/post/digital-minimalism-part-2

Month 5 Update - Final Update

It's happened a few times that friends have asked me: "Where are you so-and-so, there's no news from you," and these occasional check-ins, along with my boredom, prompted me to come and write this update.

The question that arises for me is: Is having news about people's lives more fascinating or their well-being?

Instagram is an ideal platform to get informed about changes in the lives of others. Got a new boyfriend? Or went to such-and-such restaurant? Which country did they go to now?! Broke up?! And a hundred other stories. But let's not forget that Instagram is a platform for recording and displaying moments. Moments that, even in the best-case scenarios, are miles away from the core of the main narrative. So the news it gives doesn't step beyond the boundaries of entertainment. A platform that provides constant sustenance for minds addicted to being in the know, and at the same time, encourages and then traps those same individuals to plunge others deeper into this swamp by recording more moments of themselves.

I was asked many times during this period, where are you, so-and-so, there's no news from you? I also had one answer: Where would I be? I'm home. Like always!
So what is the reason for this lack of news? Did I use to chat with people before? Or did I sit and do video calls for hours? And now I don't?! No. I don't "chat" with anyone. I don't have anything to say. Unless there is a task or a topic suddenly comes up that I want to chat about, otherwise well:
• So-and-so, come tell me about your life
• Wow, tonight, the dog of depression has slept on me and I am so-and-so from loneliness
or
• Tell me about your tasks today
or
• Have you listened to this song?!
Which is the opening for Twitter trolls when they want to tunnel into someone's DMs from the hole of an anonymous bot. The point is this: if there is something to say, it will be said. When there is no topic, the rest of the efforts are foolishness.

The painful part of the story is here that friends who ask me this question even have this place. A place where I write unmediated about what is my concern or has become an issue in my mind. The real news is here, and well, it doesn't matter to many at all. When they don't read these, what does it matter to them now which favorite cafe so-and-so and I went to today and how drunk we got at the party? News that when you saw its story, you would curse me and skip to the next story, but well, it would stick in your mind that look at so-and-so, right in the middle of the filth of exams, went to a party to have fun. This is also first-hand news that happens to be worthless.

I don't think there is a solution for this lack of news if this lack of news from someone isn't much of an issue for us. And this caring is not a choice in my opinion. It's the product of a two-way relationship that stems from a series of common points including memories and physical distance.

Let's skip this pulpit. I'm neither happy nor sad that I have no news regarding others. I don't live in a jungle, and essential news from people around me eventually reaches my ears, and that's enough for me. And people with whom, for whatever reason, we have more closeness, we get news of each other more unmediated. Without there being any intention behind it. But just that this FOMO (fear of missing out) is completely gone, I am happy. Because in any case, whether Instagram existed or not, I certainly missed out many times, and I still miss out now. But now at least I don't get informed of my missing out, and as the saying goes, no news is good news!

I will not update this status anymore either because it's clear to me that the file on Instagram, with its filthy Explore, is closed and I will not return to it, and from this day forward, nothing new will be added to what I have experienced so far.

You can read the previous part of this post [here](https://a-azadi.blog/digital-minimalism).