Disenchanted...

Hey friend,

Remember Instagram? Assuming that you use Instagram of course…

It used to be an enjoyable place to waste time but increasingly it is less and less enjoyable. Their constant pushing of video and Reels and people you don’t follow and ads-ads-ads is just so exhausting.

It used to be a place to share photos of whatever with your friends/followers in a chronological order and we would comment and chat and it was a community but now it feels like most of my posts are barely shared to a handful of people (slight exaggeration, but not far off). And if no one is seeing the posts, well, what’s the point? If no one gets to see the posts, it is very difficult to build any kind of community. You can’t communicate with people you can’t ‘see’.

And when you also to some extent rely on Instagram to get the word out about your work, but that work doesn’t reach anyone…it is kinda difficult to keep the enthusiasm for the app. Maybe that’s just me.

I feel disenchanted and less and less inclined to use IG. I don’t know what the solution is. Everyone seems to be using Instagram more than other apps, so I don’t know if it would even work to focus more on Flickr or Ello or whatever. Any ideas? Where do you like to hang out online? Seriously, I would love to know. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. :-)

I am grateful that you let me pop into your inbox every week. No algorithm or ads or follow suggestions. Just one person talking to another person. Thank you.

I hope you have a lovely weekend!

x Carina

Reminder: if you want to take part in the November Mandala Stitchalong, sign up now because it starts on Tuesday. I’m so excited to share the four designs in the stitchalong!

P.S. It is now possible to write reviews in my Payhip shop. (Here’s a blog post explaining how it works.) If you have bought one of my patterns, I’d be grateful if you’d leave a review if you have a moment. xx

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Some Things I Enjoyed This Week

We saw Dune at the cinema. It was good. A bit long. Pretty tense and quite dark (literally) in places.

I finished reading The Art of Noticing* by Rob Walker. It was interesting. Some of the ideas didn’t seem that interesting but some of them really spoke to me and I took notes because they inspired different ideas. I love a book that inspires new ideas!

I bought some new watercolours: delicious turquoise, orange and pink colours. I can’t wait to play with them this weekend! :-)

*bookshop.org affiliate link