I Deleted TikTok for Two Months
I’d heard people say Instagram Reels was weird. They were downplaying it.
It took me one week TikTok-free to stop mindlessly typing the app’s name into the search bar of my phone. After yielding only Safari results — and no music note icon — I realized how strong the muscle memory had become. It only reaffirmed my decision to take a break.
In week two, I began to reap the benefits of kicking my doom-scrolling habit. I started having more productive mornings, more relaxing downtime, better focus time, and, actually, less tired eyes. Not reaching for TikTok upon waking up was feeling I hadn’t experienced in years. I loved it — so much that I questioned why I had ever allowed myself to waste so much time.
When I wrote my last issue, I intended to only give up the app for one month. That quickly extended into the next month. While first and foremost, I wanted to keep experiencing the positive impacts of life without TikTok, I also wanted to spend some more time getting to know Instagram Reels.
Let’s address the obvious — why pick up an eerily similar short-form video driven social media platform in an effort to quit using another?
I’m a social media professional and I hadn’t spent much time using Instagram Reels to consume content. I wanted to get to know the algorithm.
I have always struggled to juggle my time between social media platforms. Without TikTok, I’d be able to direct my focus to another corner of the internet.
I’d heard weird things about the platform. I needed to see it for myself.
I always knew when to put the phone down and never transitioned those same doom-scrolling habits over to Instagram. While I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface when it comes to how the platform actually works, I’ve found some interesting similarities and differences between Reels and TikTok’s algorithm, content, and user behavior. Let’s dive in.
Highly produced, (longer) short-form content wins
The first thing I noticed when I started scrolling on Reels was the plethora of cooking videos on my discovery page. Sure, I’d followed and been sent a few chef creators’ accounts, but in those first few days I saw roughly five videos on how to make Chicken Katsu, all posted by different creators. Most videos were shot on a camera much higher quality than an iPhone, with a voiceover that sounded like it was recorded on a podcast microphone. There was clearly intense off-platform effort that went into editing. They had a YouTube-level quality.
But what was also similar to YouTube was the length of these Reels. Many videos were at least 30 seconds long — which by TikTok standards, is rather demanding of attention. On TikTok, it’s a known fact that the platform prefers if you film in app — and keep it brief — but on Instagram, this did not appear to be the case.
However, because Instagram Reels favors higher production value, unless you’re a videographer, it’s probably not a place where a creator who’s just filming on an iPhone would want to get their start creating. It feels as if Reels is a middle ground between TikTok and YouTube — and you’re best suited growing your audience on either of those apps first, then moving over.
The algorithm is predictable, with random (really random) sprinkled in
I had spent such a minimal amount of time using Reels that the opportunity to build my feed excited me. In the end, it ended up being more annoying than exciting.
In the first few days of watching those cooking videos and checking out the chefs’ profiles, I was immediately served only cooking content for the rest of the week. Once I found an NYC influencer whose page I recognized, and I saw her content on my discovery page at least three times a day. One time I discovered this Israeli dancer‘s content, I checked out a few of her Reels, and I was given four of her videos in a row — so many I thought I had broken the application and couldn’t get off of her personal feed. The algorithm was not suggesting similar content, and instead, giving me the same content of the creators I’d clicked on over and over and over again. When I use the app today, I mostly see content of creators I’ve watched before.
Then I realized what might be the problem.
On TikTok, visiting a creator’s account after watching their videos is easy to do. You click on their profile picture, you look at their page, and you scroll through their videos. It’s the only option you have to consume their content. On Instagram, you watch a creator’s video, click on their profile, and are taken to their account page. You can look at their photos OR look at their Reels feed, both on different tabs. I am no expert in the algorithm, but I believe this discrepancy may lead to the Instagram Reels algorithm struggling to accurately detect user behavior. If I click on someone’s profile and only look through their photos, how is that behavior accounted for differently from when I click on someone’s profile and only watch their Reels?
People were mean on TikTok. People on Reels are ruthless beyond belief.
“Why don’t you post this on Reels,” was a popular TikTok comment around the time I deleted the app. I had a feeling about what it meant: Instagram users would be far more willing to leave hate comments than TikTok users.
Unfortunately, that’s the case on Reels.
There were many times when I’d see a creator’s video with 5,000 likes and 4,000 comments, and my stomach dropped. People are far more aggressive about their hateful remarks: from appearance, to taste, to intellect, and so forth. On TikTok, there’d surely be some hate comments, but certainly not as many — or as intense — as Reels.
While I know the user bases for the platforms differ, I don’t think it’s a fair suggestion to say that people on Instagram are just meaner. I also know that Instagram censors comments just as TikTok does in an effort to combat cyberbullying.
The only thing I can identify that may be causing this is the nature of the platforms themselves. TikTok was built with authenticity in mind. Instagram has always been a highlight reel. On the former, being funny wins. On the latter, being pretty wins. Many Reels users are probably long-time Instagram users, who maybe don’t even have TikTok. But commenting hate is never an action that can be justified.
I need to spend more time with the app
Two months on Reels wasn’t enough time. I’m no expert on this app. Clearly, my algorithm needs work, and I need to better understand the differences between content and user behavior.
I miss TikTok. I’ll probably download it again. But one thing’s for sure — I won’t be doom-scrolling. I’ll be doing research.