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HONEY, I SHRUNK MY INSTAGRAM!

1
”Have you been hacked?” An eagle-eyed person DM’d me last night. ”Nope. I’ve deleted all my posts!” I breezily replied. You probably haven’t noticed, but I’ve been un-instagramming. What is un-instagramming? Well, it’s a term I just made up, for when one deletes one’s posts on one’s feed. I’m now left with 9 only. It felt neat: 3×3 makes a square and this place is about squares.

You see, I’ve been undoing years of Instagramming. Having posted over 3500 pictures and videos since I joined, I’ve effectively deleted an electronic

SelfishMother.com
2
photo-diary. I did it with a smile on my face at the memories.

The day I joined Instagram was January 1st 2015. I left a Bugged Out New Years Day party early, with a mission to ’follow’ hundreds of people so I could kick-start my Selfish Mother Insta-presence. Growing my Instagram that day was more important than the party. Back in Jan 2015, Instagram was waking up; it felt exciting, buzzy and stylish. This new platform made Facebook – where I’d grown my Selfish Mother blog following –  feel gauche and clunky. On Instagram you could only post one

SelfishMother.com
3
picture at a time, and the user group was small and curious!

It felt like the place to be. Pertinent for me, the new motherhood community was blossoming, and Instagram felt like its natural home, a symbiotic coming together and meeting of souls: which saw us grow initiatives and businesses in tandem. 

Drawn to each other, before IRL was a phrase, we met at Mothers Meetings run by Jenny Scott, we wore my MOTHER T-shirts to support Women for Women UK, we ‘Parented the S**t out of Life’ with Anna Whitehouse, bought non-floral gifts by Steph

SelfishMother.com
4
Douglas, worked out with Adrienne Herbert, wrote lists for Clemmie Telford, and Dressed Like a Mum with Zoë de Pass. I remember meeting Zoë and Anna for the first time, when we all had 5000 followers. We felt excited. These were unprecedented social media times!

Over the years, Instagram has been good to me. It helped me partner with Save the Children, Women for Women UK, Mothers 2 Mothers & more, to raise a cool £1 Million. Customers (here’s to you @SassyQ1) and celebrities (Kate Moss! Sir Mo Farah! Jamie Oliver! Salma Hayek! Dame Helen

SelfishMother.com
5
Mirren!) shared my tops on the ’gram. I launched a book of blog posts called The Mother Book.

When I opened The FMLY Store in Bruton, I wooed people to Somerset through squares; fellow ”influencers” such as Yvonne Telford, Holly Tucker, Candice Brathwaite and Giovanna Fletcher hosted talks. My 2nd-cousin Lakwena painted a GOOD LIFE mural. I collaborated with so many folks as we virtually grew together.

Instagram enabled me to try ideas: SelfishMother YouTube, 24 Hour Retreats, Online Masterclasses, We Mean Business Events, Selfish Mother Gin, SM

SelfishMother.com
6
Breakfasts, FMLY Man Blog, Sample sales, kids’ workshops, Biz Coaching… a 10 Issue SelfishMother InstaZine with a launch party at Instagram HQ!

As a backdrop I shared highs and lows of family life as a mum of 3: the overwhelm, the joy, the Winging It, my on-off relationship with booze.

But things feel different now. Instagram is busier, but the breadth of the platform feels smaller. My raison d’etre has changed: I’m no longer trying to grow my business or my following. My kids are older, and it felt strange that a back-catalog of their

SelfishMother.com
7
childhood was online.

With the arrival of TikTok and Reels, I (cantankerously) feel like pushing back on short-attention-span culture. Connectivity through words is important to me. I was a journalist before I launched Selfish Mother – a brand which started as a written Blog. So words are what I’m returning to.

I’m not launching a newsletter! This feed will be about sharing stories, either blog posts, or Instagram ‘stories.’ My 9 squares will switch up, but there will only ever be 9 – anything before will be yesterday’s news. As a former

SelfishMother.com
8
newspaper journo, that suits me 🙂

It feels freeing to ‘delete’ and downsize. Beforehand, I ordered photo-books of my IG history (Pastbooks – so easy). My Instagram life is now on my bookshelf. Me and my kids can browse it when we want…

 

 

 

 

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This blog was originally posted on SelfishMother.com - why not sign up & share what's on your mind, too?

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We regularly share posts on @SelfishMother Instagram and Facebook :)

- 31 Jan 23

“Have you been hacked?” An eagle-eyed person DM’d me last night. “Nope. I’ve deleted all my posts!” I breezily replied. You probably haven’t noticed, but I’ve been un-instagramming. What is un-instagramming? Well, it’s a term I just made up, for when one deletes one’s posts on one’s feed. I’m now left with 9 only. It felt neat: 3×3 makes a square and this place is about squares.

You see, I’ve been undoing years of Instagramming. Having posted over 3500 pictures and videos since I joined, I’ve effectively deleted an electronic photo-diary. I did it with a smile on my face at the memories.

The day I joined Instagram was January 1st 2015. I left a Bugged Out New Years Day party early, with a mission to ‘follow’ hundreds of people so I could kick-start my Selfish Mother Insta-presence. Growing my Instagram that day was more important than the party. Back in Jan 2015, Instagram was waking up; it felt exciting, buzzy and stylish. This new platform made Facebook – where I’d grown my Selfish Mother blog following –  feel gauche and clunky. On Instagram you could only post one picture at a time, and the user group was small and curious!

It felt like the place to be. Pertinent for me, the new motherhood community was blossoming, and Instagram felt like its natural home, a symbiotic coming together and meeting of souls: which saw us grow initiatives and businesses in tandem. 

Drawn to each other, before IRL was a phrase, we met at Mothers Meetings run by Jenny Scott, we wore my MOTHER T-shirts to support Women for Women UK, we ‘Parented the S**t out of Life’ with Anna Whitehouse, bought non-floral gifts by Steph Douglas, worked out with Adrienne Herbert, wrote lists for Clemmie Telford, and Dressed Like a Mum with Zoë de Pass. I remember meeting Zoë and Anna for the first time, when we all had 5000 followers. We felt excited. These were unprecedented social media times!

Over the years, Instagram has been good to me. It helped me partner with Save the Children, Women for Women UK, Mothers 2 Mothers & more, to raise a cool £1 Million. Customers (here’s to you @SassyQ1) and celebrities (Kate Moss! Sir Mo Farah! Jamie Oliver! Salma Hayek! Dame Helen Mirren!) shared my tops on the ‘gram. I launched a book of blog posts called The Mother Book.

When I opened The FMLY Store in Bruton, I wooed people to Somerset through squares; fellow “influencers” such as Yvonne Telford, Holly Tucker, Candice Brathwaite and Giovanna Fletcher hosted talks. My 2nd-cousin Lakwena painted a GOOD LIFE mural. I collaborated with so many folks as we virtually grew together.

Instagram enabled me to try ideas: SelfishMother YouTube, 24 Hour Retreats, Online Masterclasses, We Mean Business Events, Selfish Mother Gin, SM Breakfasts, FMLY Man Blog, Sample sales, kids’ workshops, Biz Coaching… a 10 Issue SelfishMother InstaZine with a launch party at Instagram HQ!

As a backdrop I shared highs and lows of family life as a mum of 3: the overwhelm, the joy, the Winging It, my on-off relationship with booze.

But things feel different now. Instagram is busier, but the breadth of the platform feels smaller. My raison d’etre has changed: I’m no longer trying to grow my business or my following. My kids are older, and it felt strange that a back-catalog of their childhood was online.

With the arrival of TikTok and Reels, I (cantankerously) feel like pushing back on short-attention-span culture. Connectivity through words is important to me. I was a journalist before I launched Selfish Mother – a brand which started as a written Blog. So words are what I’m returning to.

I’m not launching a newsletter! This feed will be about sharing stories, either blog posts, or Instagram ‘stories.’ My 9 squares will switch up, but there will only ever be 9 – anything before will be yesterday’s news. As a former newspaper journo, that suits me 🙂

It feels freeing to ‘delete’ and downsize. Beforehand, I ordered photo-books of my IG history (Pastbooks – so easy). My Instagram life is now on my bookshelf. Me and my kids can browse it when we want…

 

 

 

 

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Molly Gunn is the founder and editor of Selfish Mother, a site she created for like-minded women in 2013. Molly has been a journalist for over 15 years, starting out working on fashion desks at The Guardian, The Telegraph & ES Magazine before going freelance in 2006 to write for quality publications. She now edits Selfish Mother, sells #GoodTees to raise funds for charity, & writes freelance for Red Magazine and The Sunday Telegraph's Stella. Molly is mother to Rafferty, 6, Fox, 4, and baby Liberty. She is married to Tom aka music producer Tee Mango and founder of Millionhands. They live in Bruton, Somerset.

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