The Sunday Reset: Bye, Instagram.

I was checking IG while waiting on water to boil.

The Sunday Reset is a weekly email with thoughts we’re having or things we’re loving and want to share with you. Thanks for reading.

Hi GMR community! Meredith here.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about getting off Instagram on my personal Substack. (You can read that here).

At the time, I mostly wrote about the relief of it all:

The relief of not being sold to.

The relief of not selling (I do not have enough ‘praise hands’ emojis for this).

The relief of not constantly consuming information, hacks, tips, opinions, recommendations, and ‘the shoulds’ (even when well-meaning).

My friend Monica (at it again with her wisdom) recently reminded me of the phrase “opportunity cost,” and it brought me back to my reflections about giving up Instagram. I wasn’t spending eight straight hours a day scrolling. I wasn’t neglecting my responsibilities. My opportunity costs were more subtle than that.

But also…were they?

Because while there were certainly deeper costs, there was also the very obvious reality that I was reaching for my phone ALL. THE. TIME. I’m about to embarrass myself here with some examples:

Walking from the kitchen to the living room? Phone.

Waiting for water to boil? Phone.

Commercial break? Phone.

A few minutes before an appointment? Phone.

Stoplight? Phone.

Tiny flicker of boredom? Phone.

At some point, I had to admit that it was becoming ridiculous.

I had become a grown woman who instinctively reached for a small black rectangle every time there was an opening in my day. The actual scrolling was only part of it. The bigger realization was how automatic it had become. I wasn’t really choosing anymore- I was reacting. When I was honest with myself, I was embarrassed by my automatic behavior.

For me, I realized that the people I admire most don’t seem to move through life that way. They possess a kind of presence I want for myself- a steadiness and rootedness that feels increasingly rare.

The people I most respect seem to live from a place of conviction rather than compulsion.

Meanwhile, there was me: checking Instagram while waiting for water to boil. Cool.

Again, the issue wasn’t that Instagram was inherently bad. It was that my relationship with it felt increasingly out of alignment with the kind of person I wanted to become. The funny thing is, this realization was so subtle, it took me being sick as a dog during my first trimester to finally stop caring about Instagram altogether (as referenced in my original Bye Bye, Insta article).

The opportunity cost wasn’t just the time I spent on Instagram. It was all the moments surrounding Instagram. It was the low-level hum of noise running in the background, even if that noise was funny reels or genuinely helpful information. What I’ve realized since getting off Instagram is that attention is one of the most valuable things I have (please forgive how dorky this sounds, it’s just the truth).

Then there was the creator side of things. WOOF. The scrolling was one thing, but there was also the constant awareness of content:

Should I post this?

Should I share this?

This would make a good story.

I should get B-roll.

I should remember this for later.

I don’t think I fully appreciated how much mental bandwidth that occupied until it was gone. And I don’t think the biggest opportunity cost was productivity. I don’t look back and think, “Imagine all the things I could have accomplished.” Instead, I think about all the micro moments I was giving away. I wanted entertainment at every mundane turn and, frankly, it was just ridiculous. I’m not suggesting that boredom needs to become a profound spiritual experience. I’m simply saying that, for me, not every spare second needs to belong to a device.

I got off Instagram mostly by circumstance, but I stayed off because I realized how much of my attention it had quietly claimed. And I do mean claimed. Now that I’ve gotten some of those micro moments back, I don’t particularly want to give them away again. I want to be the kind of person who can sit with her thoughts during a commercial break, or stand in line at Target without immediately checking what she missed in the last fifteen minutes (she probably didn’t miss anything).

I will be SO curious to hear where this landed with you, Get Mom Ready community. Reply to this email or comment below if you’re reading this on Substack.

This week we’re dropping a truthful, hilariously relatable episode with our dear friend, Mary Scott Mercer. It’s part how-to-have-a-butter-summer-but-not-lose-your-marbles and part what-kind-of-boundaries-do-I-need-for-myself. The recording felt electric, and we hope you feel that energy when you listen! Make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss an episode!

As always, you can listen to the Get Mom Ready Podcast anywhere you consume podcasts! CATCH UP ON EPISODES HERE.