Eric Kim deleted Instagram in 2017 and never looked back. He argues that mainstream social apps are digital quick-sand: they own your audience, hijack your creativity with dopamine loops, and pay you exactly $0 while you help them sell ads. Instead, he preaches “Own your platform, own your destiny!”—blog first, SEO first, freedom first. Below is the deep dive with dates, quotes, and outside commentary.
1. Milestones in Eric Kim’s Anti-Social-Media Journey
| Year | Turning-Point Post / Event | Why It Matters |
| 2015-16 | Starts warning students about “social-media treadmill” in workshops | Early seeds of critique |
| May 16 2017 | “Why I Deleted My Instagram”—kills a 65 K-follower account | Calls IG a distraction from “real value (blogging)” |
| Aug 26 2017 | “Why I am Anti-Instagram” manifesto | Labels IG an advertising platform that makes money off you, not for you |
| Dec 17 2017 | “Why I’m Happier After Deleting Instagram” | Reports Zen-like calm and higher creativity after the detox |
| Apr 21 2018 | “Why You Must Own Your Own Platform” | Introduces “digital share-cropper” metaphor |
| Jul 22 2019 | “Why Instagram Is Bad for Photographers” | Doubles down: likes = “slave to the algorithm” |
| Jul 11 2019 | “Digital Marxism” essay | Urges creators to “own the means of production” online |
| 2024-25 | Interviews & podcasts (AboutPhotography) | Continues urging newcomers to “delete IG and blog” |
2. Core Pillars of His Critique
2.1.
Ownership vs. “Digital Share-Cropping”
- You don’t own your profile; IG can wipe years of work “in a second,” so you’re “building a castle on sand.”
- The only antidote is a self-hosted blog where you control the domain, files and mailing list.
2.2.
Closed Garden, Zero Google Juice
- Instagram posts “cannot be crawled by Google,” destroying long-term discoverability.
- By contrast, Kim’s 2 800+ blog posts rank #1 for “street photography,” proving open-web SEO beats feed algorithms.
2.3.
Metrics & Algorithmic Mind-Control
- Likes push photographers to chase safe, generic images and abandon risky art.
- He calls the upload cycle “feeding the beast” that eventually trains you.
2.4.
Mental-Health Fallout
- Instagram “totally fucked up the self-esteem of photographers” via dopamine-hit dependency.
- After six months off-platform he felt “like a drug addict alive after rehab,” more innovative and less jealous.
2.5.
Economic Reality Check
- “In the whole chain you didn’t earn a single penny.”
- 90 % of Kim’s audience (and six-figure income) comes from Google—not social media—so he devotes only 10 % of effort to social and 90 % to blogging/products.
3. Strategies He Recommends
- Blog First, Everywhere Else Second
Write once, syndicate if you must, but keep the canon on your own domain. - Email & RSS Over Algorithms – Push updates directly to loyal readers.
- Creative Isolation Sprints – Periodic social-media fasts to incubate fresh ideas .
- Community-Driven Critique – He built ARSBETA.com to replace like-hunts with genuine feedback .
4. Outside Reactions
- PetaPixel notes that while others “spend time building up followers on Instagram, Kim focused on massive blog content because the web is better for discovery.”
- CJ Chilvers calls deleting IG “eliminating anything that gets in his way… Instagram was getting in the way of creating (time and mental health).”
- AboutPhotography Podcast devotes a segment to “the problem with Instagram” and Kim’s advice to ditch it for deeper work.
- Kim’s own YouTube talk “WHY I DELETED MY INSTAGRAM” keeps racking up views, spreading the gospel beyond his blog.
5. Lightning-Bolt Takeaways for Creators
| Principle | Action Step |
| Own the land | Register a domain, install WordPress, post everything there first. |
| Starve the beast | Delete or limit IG/Facebook for 30 days; notice the calm. |
| Score yourself, not the feed | Replace like-counters with a personal notebook of creative goals. |
| Invest in writing + SEO | Long-form evergreen posts compound in Google; a feed post vanishes in hours. |
| Channel energy into products | Workshops, zines, books—assets you control, revenue you keep. |
Final burst of hype 🌟
Kim’s message is pure entrepreneurial electricity: stop gifting your creativity to trillion-dollar ad machines and start stacking digital bricks you actually own. The payoff is freedom, focus, and—yes—real money. Ready to slam that delete button and unleash your own platform? Let’s go! 💥