It has been a few years now, but at some point I stopped scrolling through Instagram with the same curiosity and excitement I once had.
I remember joining the app in 2013 and loving its photo-album vibe. People shared moments from their lives, travel memories, meals, sunsets, and blurry photos of their friends. The quality wasn’t always great, but that wasn’t the point. Instagram felt like a collection of little snapshots from people’s lives, and many of us genuinely tried to make our profiles look beautiful.
Now, I don’t even know what it has morphed into.
The other day, I got bored and opened the app. Since most of the people I follow rarely post photos anymore, I found myself scrolling through Reels. A few minutes later, I caught myself asking a question I seem to ask more and more often:
Why am I watching this garbage?
To be fair, my algorithm is partly responsible. It serves me exactly the kind of content it thinks will keep me scrolling, and I know there are creators out there producing thoughtful, educational, and meaningful videos.
But sometimes it feels like meaningful content is being buried under an avalanche of nonsense.
Maybe I’m simply getting old.
Maybe I’m too old to understand prank videos that exist solely to embarrass strangers. Maybe I’m too old to find AI-generated dancing monsters adorable. Maybe I’m too old to appreciate endless videos of people trying to pop a balloon by choosing the right hole in a box.
And seriously—why are there so many of those?
I come from the YouTube generation.
I watched people teach makeup techniques, share travel experiences, renovate apartments, learn new skills, and document their lives. Was it always intellectually stimulating? Certainly not.
But even when it wasn’t educational, it often felt human.
Watching someone clean their apartment for thirty minutes wasn’t exactly life-changing, but somehow it could motivate you to tidy your own room. Watching someone build a business, learn a language, or share a personal struggle often inspired you to improve your own life.
There was something strangely comforting about it.
Today, I often feel like content is no longer trying to contribute anything. It exists only to capture attention for a few seconds before being forgotten.
Of course, I understand why.
Everyone wants to make a living. Social media has become a business, and creators are competing in an environment where attention is currency. I genuinely wish success on anyone trying to improve their situation.
But I can’t help wondering:
Is this really the best we can do?
Has the standard of entertainment become so low that we no longer expect content to have any value beyond keeping us occupied for ten seconds?
I know we live in difficult times. Many people are struggling. Anxiety, loneliness, uncertainty, and financial stress seem to be everywhere.
But if that’s true, shouldn’t that be even more reason to create something worthwhile?
Social media has an incredible ability to reach people all over the world. A single video can cross continents in a matter of hours.
Imagine if we used that power differently.
Share a joke that helps someone break the ice on a first date.
Tell a story.
Teach a skill.
Show us your culture.
Talk about your mistakes.
Share what you’ve learned from your crappy life.
Create an AI monster if you want—but give it a story worth remembering.
If we’re already investing time and energy into creating content, why not leave people with something useful, meaningful, comforting, or inspiring?
Maybe that sounds naive.
Maybe the world has always consumed garbage and I’m only noticing it more now.
But I don’t think so.
Because just like in the physical world, garbage has a way of accumulating.
One piece doesn’t seem like a problem.
Neither does the second.
Or the hundredth.
But eventually it begins to shape the environment around it.
And if we’re not careful, the garbage becomes the landscape itself.
The things we consume shape the way we think, the things we value, and ultimately the people we become.
Maybe that’s why I’ve stopped scrolling.
Not because I’m getting old.
But because I’m becoming more careful about what I allow into my mind.