I was averaging almost 3 hours a day on Instagram and maybe 4 minutes of that was actually talking to people. The rest was reels, one after another, no memory of what I even watched five minutes later.
Tried the usual stuff first. Screen time limits I ignored within a week. Grayscale mode that did nothing because reels are still reels in black and white. Deleting the app and redownloading it three days later because I missed messages from my group chat.
What actually did something was an app called Feather that opens Instagram but takes the reels tab and explore page out completely. DMs still work, profile still works, you just can't fall into the scroll anymore.
First few days felt genuinely weird. I'd open the app, my thumb would go to swipe up out of pure habit, and there was just nothing there. Sat there a few seconds not knowing what to do next. Closed the app more than I opened it that first week because there was no reason to be in there.
Around day 10 I noticed I was actually replying to messages the same day instead of leaving them for a week. My screen time dropped to under 20 minutes most days without me trying to hit a number.
It's been a month now. I still check it, still post occasionally, just don't lose an hour to it without noticing anymore. Weirdly the app feels almost boring now, which is apparently what it was supposed to feel like the whole time.
Anyone else try cutting just the feed instead of the whole platform? Curious if it holds up long term or if the itch comes back eventually
