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And this very essay is why I feel a glimmer of hope right now. Because even if Instagram is broken and the place we once found solace and community becomes more and more untenable, real people like you are writing, serving the work, tending the soil, border-walking. It’s a mess--we’ve been used and it’s frustrating as hell. But I was thinking today about what writing used to be like, about the Madeleine L’Engles and Kathleen Norrises who had to send in essays and proposals via snail mail and then wait weeks for a paper rejection. I’ve been thinking about how this digital landscape offers the gratification of instant feedback and how we no longer know how to sit in the silence of neither affirmation or rejection. I don’t know what I will do about Instagram -- the digital space provided community for me when lock down stripped it from me. And I’ll always be grateful for that aspect. But I do know that we border-walkers, we creative folk must continue to serve our own work and the works of others. So many of us are taking to Substack right now and it’s working! But one day Substack may decide it’s the next Tiktoc and leave us floundering all over again. We serve the creative work and trust the community of fellow creators that the work we do matters, whatever the platform. Know I’ll be cheering you on 🤍 (Instagram: @sarahbsouthern, sarahsouthern.substack.com)

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"If you decide to stay in the swirl of all Instagram has to offer, I would make this request: please build us an outpost of beauty. Become an artist. Write your entire heart out. Encourage everyone that you can. Offer the tenderest, truest places of your heart and the realest pieces of your story, and then be prepared to come out bruised for it, knowing deep down that sharing your story was worth the wounds. As everyone is stamped with the image of the divine, everyone has beauty and creativity to offer. I don’t mean a working knowledge of filters and how to go viral. I’m talking about soul-care, that which rescues the drowning and anchors us in belonging."

THIS is beautiful.

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Sep 11, 2022·edited Sep 11, 2022Liked by Leslie Trovato

Thank you for your thoughtful and poetic words. I am working to be an oasis of hope and soul care ( www.Instagram.com/jenniferwier ), along with many other hope writers I am privileged to be in community with. Fighting for goodness is always going to be a fight, more so as time goes on. But good wins.

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Lovely article, Loooove the photos! Where am I? Refreshed!

"To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken." - Isaiah 28, The Holy Bible

Blessings everyone. You are beloved of God and Leslie and me et al

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I love this. All of this. I'm trying to find the mamas who are drowning over at @elizabeth_a_berget . This line struck me, as a writer: " that any industry requiring me to prove my worth based on a number of fans is one that doesn’t share my personal values." I feel this deep in my bones. The same virus describe as having diseased Instagram either came from or has also infected the publishing industry. I feel overwhelmed... these are two systems that I don't have the power to change on my own. As Ashlee Gadd recently wrote, shouldn't writers be encouraged to write instead of make videos as they are seeking to build a platform. I don't know. I don't have answers. But I'm grateful for your work!

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Leslie, you took the thoughts right out of my head. Thank you for the encouragement to be authentic no matter what. Timely indeed!

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I am working to be a wounded healer and share the hope, healing and freedom of our God who is both eager and willing to mend the broken places. I'm on instagram @chrystiecole and just started @the_wholeheartedproject

Thanks for the encouragement to keep being outposts of beauty...

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Jul 29, 2022Liked by Leslie Trovato

I used to love Instagram for the beauty and the sense of connection is offered. It's how I found a lot of the writers I've enjoyed reading over the past few years. It became a place of hope during the pandemic. And then...it wasn't. The anger, misinformation and ugliness that had caused me to spend less and less time on Facebook was bleeding into the haven of Instagram. At times when I've considered sharing this messy journey of raising teenage girls and floundering through faith and learning more than we ever wanted to know about the mental health system, I had to pause and reconsider. The idea of creating content to create content and attract likes and followers is something I cannot get behind for myself. And even though I cringe at the grown women shaking their booties for likes and sell their products, I can't stop myself from looking. And I stay for the beauty that's still there in the photos of everyday life. And continue to dream, and pray, I'll have the courage to share the little bits of beauty in our life here.

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Ughhh. Yes. I am just beginning this writing thing and wondering if trying to build a “platform” is even worth it. All I want to do is encourage other people who are struggling with the same things & make them feel less lonely. I don’t have the time or desire to spend my limited time away from my children making videos someone will forget about in 30 seconds. When I do make a reel it leaves me feeling twitchy and a little empty. They were a little fun at first but feel so contrived and like I’m only doing them for views which is somewhat true but makes me feel disingenuous.

@writing_while_washing on IG and here on Substack

https://anneliseroberts.substack.com/?r=17ws3w&utm_medium=ios

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While I can't say that I'm not overwhelmed by the ads for things I don't need and flashy nonsensical reels, I still feel like IG is where my people are; and they're slowly finding me, as I slowly learn to understand them. I share grace, truth, and beauty from an Anabaptist perspective @travelight94 and I'd love to share a little bit of it with you all on your journey.

Thank you, Leslie, for sharing your heart and your beautiful photography and your space. Your analogy about maintaining the borders of beauty reminded me of the rangers like Aragorn in LOTR.

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Yes, a thousand times this, not just on Instagram but everywhere:

I would make this request: please build us an outpost of beauty. Become an artist. Write your entire heart out. Encourage everyone that you can. Offer the tenderest, truest places of your heart and the realest pieces of your story, and then be prepared to come out bruised for it, knowing deep down that sharing your story was worth the wounds.

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Thank you for this—you have so perfectly put all the grief and the angst into words. I am @gracekelleywrites on IG and https://graceekelley.substack.com/

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This was a balm to read this morning, as a writer also wrestling with IG. I'm months away from having a memoir manuscript that I want to query, so I've got the word "platform" swirling around in my head, ya know? But I also am tired and numb towards this app that limits the community I love with its push towards the viral, instead of the real. I'm sticking mostly to stories for now, but beginning to plan out how to shift away--perhaps with a substack, replacing consumption with connection, instead of my mailchimp newsletters. We'll see. Trying not to worry, but keep creating anyway. Thank you for these words.

@katie.rose.rouse - there's a post pinned at the top of my profile that has similar social media thoughts, to keep the theme going.

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My consumption of IG has changed recently, and perhaps the recent updates have been part of the equation. The scrolling, thinking surely more than three of my people having posted before I get all the ads and suggested posts. I continue to post the same, hopefully lifegiving, bits of my daily life, which includes everything from Rheumatoid Arthritis and gardening to musings and blessings to poetry and artistic endeavors. On IG I’m @punamulta.priory and, like an actual priory, I am intentionally cultivating a place of beauty and hospitality, where the weary sojourners can rest, provided they make it to my, not well advertised or algorithmed, door.

@punamulta.priory

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I like to think I’m a safe space. I understand trauma and sexual violence and I often share on those difficult topics. I’ve never been one to post only the highlight reels. I share the highs and the lows - Something that I hope makes me come across as genuine.

IG: @mybeautyfromashes

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My heart has been heavy too over the slow death of the old Instagram. Thank you for these words. Trying to continue truth-telling and documenting beauty over at @sam.decosmo.

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