I haven't been able to find a better solution to this, that allows such cognitive relaxation quickly between work session allowing me to quit Instagram.
What do you guys do between cognitively demanding work session, when you feel mentally exhausted?
In general, avoid stimulants like HN, Reddit, Instagram to minimize context switching.
It was quite spontaneous. I came out of shower, picked my phone and deleted the IG account, FB account (they let you keep the messenger while FB gets de-activated), Snapchat and Twitter all at once.
The feeling of fear of missing out is real and you go through almost a withdrawal period. Things like you launching browser and fingers automatically start typing Facebook's url without realizing and then the browser auto-complete automatically fills in the username and password fields and all you have to do to get a "hit" is to click the "log in" button. But then you have to force yourself to not do so.
Do it spontaneously and remove your account info from the keychain/password manager. Change your hosts file or block it on your wifi router etc. Basically make it as hard as possible for you to get back.
You can also do something like for every second you spend on social media, you need to do that many push ups and pull ups.
The other comment's advice about "seek boredom" is excellent.
For me it's less about what I do when I'm exhausted and how my environment is. Am I comfortable just staring into space, if not why not? Often I fall back into instagram as an avoidance thing, eg if I'm worried someone's going to try and bother me because I'm not doing anything
My recommendation is an audio book or podcast to fill those gaps. For me it had to be something interesting and complicated enough that I had to intentionally focus on it.
Otherwise, I suggest “poisoning” your Instagram algorithm. Follow a bunch of unpleasant topics and people, or just search for them. Your feed will soon be filled with content you have no desire to look at.