Stop being scared of posting online: 3 top tips from a recovering ghost

BRICKS Contributing Editor, Liza Bilal, holds your hand as she says this…

There was a time not long ago, when one could simply open the Instagram app, take a photo with a Valencia filter, and go about your day. When a simple meal, or an inspired piece of graffiti, could be shared with a handful of loving mutuals in peace. No anxiety, no fear, no shame.

Unfortunately, those days are well and truly gone. Now, Instagram serves as a sort of noisy, overcrowded marketplace; where AI accounts accost you with their polyester wares, and each detail of your post must undergo a heavy-handed polishing to be smiled upon by our algorithmic overlords.

Somewhere along the way, the app shifted from filtered brunch photos to a pseudo-portfolio. One that’s apparently so crucial to have that now, even entry-level creative roles will ask for your handle. Your enthusiastic presence in the digital panopticon is no longer preferred, but required.

It’s discouraging, and it feels fundamentally at odds with being a creative human being; not all expressions of self need to be on display, nor should they be monetised. The desire to reject the app altogether is a natural response to this – one that I indulged for many years before I realised: it doesn’t have to be this way.

So if you’re like me – a young woman only barely getting over the fear of posting – here are three tips that helped me soften that response into something manageable, and even enjoyable.

This newsletter is as much a pep talk to myself as it is a guide for any emerging creative who feels paralysed by the pressure to perform.