Is Substack The New Instagram?

Still Taken from a video by Amanda Jayne O’Hare

What I love about Substack is I feel safe and supported with practicing letting myself be more organic with my posting - if I feel like multiple times in one day and none another - I’m going to go with it.

I’ve needed to work this way for so long.

Yet avoided it.

I’m really feeling like I’m learning to live and work again; and in many ways I am.

So many of your resonated with the note I posted the other day about not inviting outwith Substack yet and it drove home that I’m in the right space.

I’ve got around 20,000 followers across different platforms and yet I feel most at home in long form content. Every time I’ve built up a platform, I’ve felt it unsustainable with my fluctuating energy levels. Not only that, but feeling like they’re not really place I can truly expand into my true sense of self and self expression.

Being able to write long notes that find the right people has been a tonic for me after years of feeling lonelier than I’d like to be in the online world.

Just this morning I saw a post on Threads; another platform I attempted in pursuit of finding the one; where a creator was lamenting on how quiet social media was becoming; how offline was the new luxury and the return of the blog is imminent.

I can’t help but agree.

It’s exactly how I feel.

Since leaving behind posting on Facebook and Instagram my screen time has went all the way down and my wellbeing levels have taken an upturn.

I’m back to spending more time outdoors and just existing.

I have more energy and for the most part, less anxiety too - though I feel like I have a bit of a digital hangover where the anxiety of having left is still haunting me a little.

I have a reem of videos and posts and articles I love so much that I’m poised ready to repurpose to fill up my Substack space; creations that just weren’t appreciated on social media feeds build upon strategy and following trends.

It never fit for me, as a result, I began to think my efforts weren’t any good - even though I knew it was bullshit.

There’s the famous quote - if a flower ceases to grow, you don’t change the flower, you change the environment - it’s the same with us as people and creatives.

You may have spent months or years questioning yourself when what you needed was a change of environment; rather than a change of strategy.

I’m excited to grow and develop my space here on Substack - whilst keeping vigilance on my speed. I’m being mindful not to let the anxiety hangover of social media threaten to speed me up in pursuit of vanity growth.

Here, I have the opportunity to live out the dreams of my childhood self who created pretend magazines, radio and TV shows. How psyched would she be to know she can do that now with her own unique space?!

I want to be happy and live a sustainable life and that means taking the time to unlearn hustle culture; avoiding pooping out content when I don’t feel like it. Instead, choosing to let it go, let it flow and see how it goes.

It’ll be an imperfect practice but one that will be worth its weight in gold if I’m willing to ride out that discomfort.

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