Now I believe that every time we open the Instagram, we should see a warning. Yeh content – That is, this material can be harmful to health, this can cause drug addiction and the audience should look at it at its discretion.

Until some time ago I was addicted to Instagram. I would often go on Instagram to look at a friend’s post, or we were talking about friends to look at the story of a former, or to see a specific meme. I will still stay there after hours. You see, I was addicted to Instagram, giving Mark Zuckerberg about 4 hours a day. Every 10 minutes I will start feeling foam and choose my phone. It is not that I did not know. I was. I often thought that I could use this time to plan my food, catch with friends and walk in a park. Every night when I used to scroll through the reels, I completely knew that I could keep the phone away to sleep on time. But drug addiction means. I could never do this. Often I cradled, myself more, that I was left with time to do my things. But deeply I knew where this time was disappearing.

Then that way, one day, about a month ago, a few minutes before riding in a flight, I removed the Instagram. No other idea, nothing, just press and delete on the app for a long time. The decision was suddenly. But there is no feelings behind it. Till now I could not do this because the researchers have often noted in the last few years-it was a dopamine hit from micro-dose on reels. Seeing the cute videos of cats and dogs, sending trendy mems to my friends and family, checked about who is doing what, perhaps staring. I mean I will do all this and it will bounce my mind in gigals and dopamine.

Gradually, I started seeing another side of it. In the investigation of my 3 to 4 hours of continuous scrolling, posts, stories and memes, my brain was collecting information. All information, necessary and unnecessary. Initially I did not realize this, but gradually this information messed up my brain.

This happens to many people that I think. You see a picture that someone has posted from its latest Vecca. You like the post and can comment more. But it does not end there. After a while there is a possibility that you will think of the place where they went, and your brain will start churning again. This will probably make you feel fomo about the place, empty (as they call it on Insta), the latest viral trend, and you try to see more.

Once the idea churned, they have no limit. They spirals and push you down and down into the rabbit hole. Happy hormone is essentially eliminated in anxiety and stress from an insta. It started happening to me.

there is a reason. According to cognitive-load theory, the human brain has a limited ability. So once the coming load of information exceeds this capacity, the additional accessories “accumulate, cause stress and overstimulation, and eventually anxiety”. With scrolling, endless information and messages also put a chronic cognitive weight on our brain, which is not designed to cope with it. In simple words, I was under pressure to cook my brain by spending endless time on Instagram.

I tried to control it. I tried some shortcuts to cut my daily screen time. I used the time limit facility on Instagram. This feature reminds users that they cross the limit set by them. But the brain, now used under the influence of a little and FOMO of dopamine, can simply select the skip option – which Instagram is deliberately placed in the app. The deadline is useless.

I tried to hide the app using a feature, which Apple added to iOS 18. My argument was that if I did not see it, I will not use it. It was helpful but barely. My mind knew that the app was still and I often opened it.

Finally, I removed it! I decided to go to the cold Turkey, as some people are addicted to cigarettes and alcohol. But what are addicts for other substances, I also faced as symptoms of return.

The symptoms of two withdrawal were essentially: two types of FOMO, and bored.

Famo initially worked hard. I think my phone is missing something. My fingers and eyes are used for the Insta app icon, it will miss their muscles with the memory. Then there was the real foam, that I am no longer associated with the world, that I don’t know what my friends, family members and Insta’s hundreds of other people are doing “joy”.

But this time I was committed to see it. I decided that I would not reduce the app. Boredom also came. “I am bored,” I often thought in the first two weeks after removing the app. But gradually the spirit began to decrease. My mind still started happening. I stopped feeling bored and instead started feeling infallible and untoward. My mind felt that “I have time.” Like a long time. I think now I had time to read, to wonder what is important, to join those who really meant, and of course to sleep time.

Interestingly, I know that I am not alone trying to get out of the world. However, some people whom I have spoken for their reasons. Rajat, who worked as an IT professional, shared with me why he removed Instagram. Rajat shared that his late “search page began to look like a soft porn site with clear material.” Essentially, Insta algorithms were carrying forward their timeline in a certain direction. “The content with the new AI has become more garbage. So now I keep my distance as much as possible,” they told me.

Similarly, a software engineer in Hyderabad is a case of Shubam “There is no longer the goods that I want to see like Anime News, ESPORS, Cricket. Now it is about actors and models in a skimp cloth or fake AI video, some of which are disgusting,” they say.

Dhanurdhar, a lawyer from Delhi, has also removed the app. I share their ideas and his comments on FOMO helped me see a different view. “This so -called goods find me their way anyway,” they say. “WhatsApp is enough for me where my friends and family keep me up well (sometimes very well).”

What these people have done – removing Instagram – looked impossible for me just one or two months ago. Nevertheless, my addiction reached a platform where I just had to leave it. I was afraid that it would be extremely difficult on my brain. It was for the first week. But I am also happy that all my fear is not true. The fomo is reduced. I now enjoy my “boredom” instead of being worried about it. After a while I can also go back to the app, although recently when I saw on a friend’s phone that he wanted him to examine me, I did not find any bridge or any temptation. In fact, I felt that I was not related to Insta World, the app found it completely strange. I now hope that this feeling will go away and even if I go back to the app again, it will be just another app and will not be addictive.