So, what's next?

Five days. No social media.

Yesterday zoomed by at my day job. It wasn’t that I necessarily had a lot to do, but it was because my mind was actually focused on work-related tasks for the first time in weeks. And these tasks haven’t felt too overwhelming, which is a nice change of pace for me.

I’ll admit I am starting to miss the scroll. I miss seeing what my friends are up to and supporting their content. That’s probably the biggest drawback I’m experiencing now. But everything else? Still feels like the right call to take a break.

Ever since I deleted those apps the question that’s been rolling around in my mind constantly is, “what’s next?” What does my life look like moving forward?

I want to be level-headed and open for negotiation with myself, but my gut is telling me one thing: it’s time to move on. And let me tell you, there is a huge weight lifted off my shoulders when I allow myself to lean into that.

So, ok. Let’s say I stop being a content creator. Then what?

I can’t see myself completely deleting my ‘danielleisanxious’ Instagram account. Mainly because I’ll miss you folks too much. But I’ll have to really think about how I want to use it moving forward. Maybe it’s just a space I can share my writing, forwarding people to my Substack. But, if I’m being honest, the thought of making another ‘what I wore today’ video makes my skin crawl. Nothing wrong with those videos, but I realized I just don’t really want to make them anymore.

See that’s the thing. When I started on the ‘gram back in 2018, reels weren’t even a thing yet. TikTok wasn’t even a thing, I don’t think. It was about my writing. It was about art. And I think that’s why I found so much joy in it. But over the years, these platforms have morphed into short-form video content farms who have one goal: keep people scrolling and looped in no matter how harmful it is to their mental and physical health. Because the more people scroll, the more money they spend. And let’s be honest here, it’s about money.

I miss taking creative photos with my sister or friends to share alongside a thoughtful caption. I felt like I got something out of it. Writing, after all, is therapeutic to me. And I think that’s why I found a chunk of my core audience in the first place; because of my writing. And because my mind has been preoccupied 24/7 with how to create the next viral reel, I lost the one creative outlet I once turned to when I needed to process my feelings because I didn’t have enough time or emotional bandwidth.

As I fell asleep last night, a newly lit spark in me felt excited. Excited for some secret projects I’ll share about later, but also for the future. It was in this moment I realized I’ll probably always want to create on some level - heck, I’m a creative person. But the way I create will be much more intentional and won’t necessarily involve GRWM videos and anything and everything to try and beat an algorithm, promote an affiliate link, or share a product in the hopes a brand will notice me. My ‘create’ involves being intentional in what I put out into the universe, and if people want to follow along, great. I want to create art, not pander to an algorithm. So, maybe that’s my answer from the question posed above. Maybe I’ll do just that.