11/04/2026
I deleted an Instagram account with 74,000 followers. And I’ve never felt better.
Some people think I’m absolutely fu***ng crazy for walking away from 74,000 followers. But those people have probably never experienced what it feels like to have their life under a microscope.
The truth? It just wasn’t fun anymore.
The constant pressure to create content, stay relevant, post something meaningful, and entertain 74,000 people every damn day without someone finding a reason to be offended became exhausting.
What started as something I loved slowly consumed my time, my energy, and pieces of my life that belonged to my family, my real friends, and myself.
Somewhere along the way, I stopped enjoying moments and started thinking about how to share them.
And that’s a pretty fu**ed up way to live.
This morning I woke up in total peace for the first time in years.
No pressure to post. No feeling like I owed 74,000 people something meaningful. No worrying about algorithms, engagement, or what strangers might think.
I could just wake up, live my day, and not feel obligated to share a single second of it with the internet.
It’s a beautiful fu***ng thing.
I’m 44 years old. Becoming some Instagram fly fishing social media star is not in my forecast. I have zero interest in chasing followers or validation from strangers.
Life is short. Too damn short to spend it staring at a screen trying to impress people while the ones who actually matter are sitting right in front of you.
So I’m starting over here.
I’ll keep building exceptional fly rods, creating art, sharing things when I feel like it, and building REAL relationships with my customers and the people who genuinely give a s**t.
No chasing numbers. No performing for an audience. No turning every experience into content.
And I’ll never again let some stupid fu***ng app dictate how I spend my life.
I’d rather have 100 genuine relationships than 74,000 people watching me live.
So for now, RIP .
You were fun until you weren’t.
I’m going fishing. And I might not even take a single picture.
-JL
