Remember when Instagram was Fun?

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emerhalpenny.comEMERGRAM: MY UNIVERSE 2025
Back in the days when I still had Imposter Syndrome, and was attending a funded accelerator programme for start ups, our group had an interesting talk given by one of our mentors, who showed us a short film clip about the original founders of Instagram, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krueger. Afterwards, he asked us to comment and I said I was particularly impressed by the notion that they set out to delight their users. I loved that that was their driving force and even the very word inspired me to bring some joy to my own customers. 

Our mentor said that he had been showing that film clip for many years, with every group he worked with on business growth programmes, and that I was the first person to ever take notice of that; he had been waiting for someone to mention the notion of delighting the user and finally here I was, top of the class and shirking bashfully from the impressed nods from my fellow participants. It had a profound effect on me as a business owner and indeed, as a writer. But the question must be asked - are we still delighted? 

I'm not. Instagram stopped being fun a long time ago. I could bang on about influencers and algorithms and tricks of the trade for growing as big a following as possible. I could talk about billionaire owners and dirty deals, shadow banning, online abuse, inaccuracies and downright untruths; doom-scrolling, rabbit holes, bottom dollars, money, power. Every one of those words makes me wince with stress. 

Then I remembered, I have my own platform; I have a website and it can be whatever I want it to be. I can fill it with pictures that delight; I can link the photo to a blog post. I can bring people to me - and if they don't come, that's ok, I'll be here anyway, delighted with myself. My calling card will be a random photo: the way the October evening sun hits the Virginia Creeper on my house; a white or a red rose, some chestnuts to deter spiders, the sleeping dog, my darling chickens - all in hen heaven now, but their images and the memories of them, still exist. Some of you may remember Syd, pictured here, the top of the pecking order, the female rooster of the flock. She ate first, she broke up fights, and she gave her life for her sisters when the bloody fox came to play. 

So if you have mind to, come visit my universe (belt), my little world - along with my 'Emergram'*, you'll find stories and play scripts, my TEDx talk, a snippet of my son and me on The Tommy Tierney Show, or my episode in Adoption Stories; you can buy my book, read some of my work-in-progress or subscribe to my Substack newsletter. You can even contact me to say hi. Now, doesn't that sound delightful? 
EMERGRAM: MY UNIVERSE 2025
* Click on a photo in my Emergram and it will either show you an explanatory caption or it will bring you to a blog post - hover over it before you click to see where it will take you!