{recently shared on @seattlejune}

Yesterday I spent about 30+ minutes cleansing my Instagram of those I follow. I have been feeling a need to simplify my Instagram for one main reason.  My sanity.  You see I followed many social influencers who, as a career, share clothing, home goods, beauty products, vacations, and experiences on their IG accounts.  Many of the items and trips they share are gifted to them or sponsored.  While I don’t fault them for making a living- it wasn’t really a good thing for me to be inundated all of the time. Of course they disclose their sponsored posts, they are legally required to do so.  For other posts they tag items and they simply receive kick backs through affiliate links if you make purchase.  {Again, I don’t fault them for this practice.}  I know, this is a lot of blog biz talk, but I think it is important to understand the business of social media, how companies are using their marketing dollars, and how we are being persuaded in purchasing decisions- possibly without even knowing.

Why am I sharing this information?  1.  It is just that.  Information.  2. While I try to be more conscious as a consumer, it was a battle not to click through to see the price of an item I found beautiful or interesting.  3. As most of us know, it isn’t the whole picture.  IG lives are not REAL lives.  They are curated, edited, filtered, and constructed.  But does our subconscious know it?  In many cases, probably not.  4.  Comparing is exhausting.  As an almost 43 year old woman, I don’t have time for it anymore.  And when you are comparing your reality to a manufactured image- you are never gonna win!

I love Instagram.  Visually it is so interesting to me.  I have found wonderful small businesses and creative humans sharing their talents.  I follow friends who I don’t get to see regularly.  I enjoy capturing moments in my day and sharing them with you.  I promote my blog posts using IG.  I’m note deleting it, just using it more wisely.

What do you think? How do you feel about influencers using social media to make a living?