You want to know the best Instagram story hack for your mental health and self-esteem? It’s just one little action.
Stop looking at who views your Instagram story.
I’m not just writing this for all those who can benefit from this little “hack”, I’m also writing this to stay accountable to myself so that I continue to not check who views my Instagram story.
Most of the things that I do on Instagram, I have always done them unconsciously. Little did I know, the little actions that I made accumulated into unconscious habits.
And those unconscious habits were the ones that were giving slight damages to my self-esteem, and impacting my mental health.
A difference was made once I just stopped looking at my Instagram story views in general, and it felt so much better not needing to overthink about how many views I have, and how many people actually want to view my life.
My “relationship” with Instagram
Honestly… I’ve always had a love hate relationship with Instagram.
Have you ever done any of these things?
- Try to find out who your Instagram stalkers are.
- Get caught up in posting the perfect story of what you are currently doing.
- Looking for that specific person on the list of story viewers, that you hope would see your story (yes, THAT person).
I’ve done all of them.
Looking back, one of the unconscious habits that I had on Instagram, was when I would immediately go on my story views list. Whenever I posted a story, each time I enter the Instagram app, I would immediately go to that list… and I know that there may be some that this sounds so familiar to!
I would overthink about how one story got 200 views, and then my second story posted a few minutes after that had a HUGE story view drop.
Then it led to more overthinking about whether or not people actually cared about my life.
Which then led me to question every single moment that I was living on…
Maybe for you this sounds so familiar… maybe it became one of your unconscious habits to check who viewed your Instagram story. And even though it may not be obvious, but that habit is also making us unconsciously care about what other people think of our lives.
Why do you really want to know who viewed your Instagram story?
When coming up with an idea for a YouTube video on creating content, I came across a lot of YouTube videos on how to find out who your Instagram stalkers are, why certain people watch your stories (e.g. ex, crush), why there’s a story view drop, or even general Instagram story hacks to increase story views… they’re all over the place.
That’s where it got me thinking… why do we really want to know who our Instagram stalkers are? How much would that actually help us in our life?
Why do we want to know why certain people watch our stories? Is that any of our business?
Why do we want an increase in our Instagram story views? Getting an increase in likes, I understand because they do help out your account if you need it, but no one else sees your Instagram story views but you.
Have a think about that… just like with wanting to break a habit or start a new habit – start with your why.
Why do you want to know all of these things?
Why you should just stop looking at your Instagram story views in general
Don’t get me wrong – I know that there are some businesses that need to know their statistics and insights to help them grow.
So, unless your Instagram account is for a business where you need them to help you, then it may be worth considering whether you actually need to know your insights and analytics.
The ultimate hack for us, is to just stop viewing your Instagram stories.
Let me list the three reasons why:
1. You’ll actually get to genuinely live in the moment rather than for Instagram
Maybe you’ve been guilty of getting caught up in putting out a good Instagram story, rather than just living in the moment.
I know that I’ve been guilty of this before, and sometimes I’m still guilty of it.
Imagine being in a fun place (such as a beach or a theme park that is fun), and you posted a story of it. Because it didn’t get a lot of views, you begin to question the genuine moment of being there. Now, when you look back at that memory, you’ll remember more on how you focused so much on how many people viewed it, rather than the actual fun time you had.
Maybe there were times when you have gotten more excited about posting your food rather than being in the moment. Maybe you’ve filmed a funny moment that happened, and you genuinely had a good laugh.
BUT because it didn’t get a lot of views, you’re now questioning whether or not that moment was actually funny.
Yes, “living in the moment” is a cliche statement BUT, we don’t really want to look back at our lives and feel like we just lived for the Instagram stories.
Now, with me, if there is a place that I go to that is nice, I’ll take a photo of it and post it even BUT, I won’t look at my story views because I want that moment to stay pure and genuine. I don’t want to cause myself unnecessary stress and ruin that moment just because not a lot of people viewed my story.
If there’s a funny moment that happens like if my friend falls down (like a very clumsy fall), I’ll record it, but I won’t look at the views that would make me second guess that funny moment.
2. You stop caring about what other people think of your life.
Maybe you’ve drove yourself crazy because 200+ people have viewed your first story, and then 100 people viewed your second story even though it was posted a mere few minutes later.
Then what happens? We begin to question and overthink how many people actually care about our life.
Just like the first reason, you want to keep those genuine pure moments just that – genuine pure moments.
We don’t want to ruin those moments for us, just because we looked at the drastic change of our Instagram story views.
3. You save yourself from unnecessary grief when the person you want to view your story doesn’t view your story.
Maybe it’s a crush, maybe it’s an ex, maybe it’s a friend.. who knows.
If they follow us, it’s tempting to want to know if they viewed your story… and viewed your life.
Remember, we want to keep those genuine and pure moments the same, genuine and pure.
Because imagine going somewhere where you genuinely had a good time, and then you posted a story of it, followed by checking whether they have seen it. If they don’t end up viewing it, then we just cause ourselves unnecessary grief that we don’t even need in our lives.
So TRY it.
Ultimately all three of those reasons are the reasons why I stopped looking at who views my story and the number of people who viewed my story.
I just post my story and that’s it, I don’t even bother checking it anymore.
I suggest the same for you as well.
It will stop that unnecessary and unconscious damage to your self-esteem.
Just spend your time living genuinely in the moment, living your life, not caring about what other people think. The right people will come into our life, and it’s not going to be through a screen.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hi, this is Lauren! I’m a law grad from Melbourne, Australia. On laurenbarri.com, I create content on all things personal development, productivity, self-care, and habits! I am super passionate about these topics because of how they helped me in all areas of my life, and I want to share it with others!
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