A friend told me today that his Instagram account had been hacked. This started us down the path of trying to understand just why we continue to post things on social media. He's been a long time user of Twitter and he's decided to close that account in August this year, it will be the tenth anniversary of his interaction with the platform. Last year I made the determination that I was wasting too much time on Facebook and I deleted that account. What my friend said to me was, I think, prescient. He said, "I've never made a cent posting all that stuff. The only place where people pay attention and where that attention is sometimes connected with someone who has the ability and willingness to write me a check is on LinkedIn. If I post something relevant to my business there I sometimes get great responses. Every other avenue of social media, at best, just delivers a parsimonious dose of dopamine, and then only if someone leaves a comment about my "contribution."
I thought of my own Twitter account which languishes with the same follower count from month to month= 253. Why do I bother to post stuff on Twitter? Certainly it's not a practical place for clients to find photographers or videographers. And it's filled with too much politics and negative content. I hope I remember tomorrow that I want to delete that account as well. I'd eliminate my Instagram account but for the fact that a famous curator dropped by and "liked" a handful of my work, as did one of my favorite creative directors....
I know why I started this blog back in 2009 but for the life of me I don't know why I keep pounding away at it today. The books I wrote were my original impetus for starting the Visual Science Lab; I wanted to help market them, but they have all entered the "long tail" death rattle of declining sales and I don't have the energy or desire to revise any of them. At one time I thought I might market workshops but I looked around realized that the people who were doing workshops were the ones not doing the actual, real world or fine art work and I made the choice to pursue commercial clients, fees and usage instead.
I worked on a great job yesterday. It went quickly. My lighting design was exactly what the client wanted. The art director and the traffic manager of the advertising agency both wrote e-mails to me today to tell me how happy everyone is with the (singular) photograph. I am basking in the glow of a job I did well and enjoyed putting together. For today, at least, the photographic world can take care of itself. I'll start dismantling the less productive piece of my social media memberships tomorrow...
For the foreseeable future I'll keep posting to this blog. You might not like the new content but then again you've never paid me for it either.
I appreciated Andrew Molitor's take on the Notre Dame fire. Go check his writing out on PhotoThunk.
17 comments:
I did a portrait today and then when to swim practice at noon. I spent the rest of the day just thinking. I don't think we stop often enough or long enough to mull things over and to realize just what we're doing when we're always in a hurry.
Thanks heaps for your contributions here, on Twitter and on Instagram.
I know I would never have bought your books had I not followed this blog!
Hang in there and continue to share your opinions and ideas here and anywhere else you find useful.
For those of us out here floating around in the Interspace, the hope is that you'll keep posting because you're interesting. Photography, the business thereof, life...whatever.
There are so many ways we can let our lives be stolen from us. Social media is just one of them.
One day you'll put aside this blog. In the meantime, it has been a wonderful education. And a pleasure to read.
Social Media, the bottomless pit of energy. I use linked in for networking but have been thinking recently about posting some content there as I have a pretty good network... I imagine that will end up feeling the same way when more people engage there as well.
I can't bring myself to join Twitter with any real energy. Every time I read the comments it just feels like strangers throwing crap back and forth. Facebook is very local for me, and that's good, but it's easy to overdo it, especially if you manage an active community organizing page like I do. I do find Facebook very valuable for organizing in-person events. These days it's like the event doesn't exist if it's not on Facebook.
Twitter Account Deactivated. Nice.
I think that you like to write almost as much as you like to make portraits. If that energy is in you, why not give it an outlet?
FWIW, I bought a few of your books as a result of reading VSL.
Same for me with social media. I'm feeling more and more the urge to just delete it all. I'm pretty sure I will soon and I think I'll have to just go cold turkey. I've tried easing myself off it slowly but the pull is too superficially strong. I know it contributes little to my quality of life.
Agreed. I recently did a blog post myself saying that I'm basically off Facebook and Twitter. Beyond being a waste of time and negatively effecting the psychology of their users, it can be argued that Facebook has been a big detriment to society. It's evident from their actions that they really don't care either.
Interesting, as usual. I do hope you will keep up the blog, even if the pace slows. Yours is the only photo site I regularly read anymore. I do check in at that dreaded review site, mostly to keep up with new products, and I look in on Molitor a couple of times a week. But your mix of business, personal, and art keeps me coming back and reading.
I wrote a longer post and deleted it -- but it did help my own thinking about social media. I have both photo and personal pages on Facebook and Instagram. The FB personal page is invaluable for keeping up with friends and family scattered all over the world. I'll definitely be keeping that one. On the IG photo page I "curate" (word of the week) to keep a flow of interesting art and photography. Anything boring I see there is either a personal friend or business associate I can't afford to dump. Again, I'll keep that one. The IG personal is fun. I should probably get a better phone and do more with it. And I have a few friends there who are not on FB. The FB photo page I need to either rethink or let go. It no longer serves a business purpose or brings much pleasure. Could be time to let go.
I never understood Twitter, but it seems to work for some. I'll let them have it.
Anyhow, I hope you will keep up the good work. I certainly miss the blog when you take a time out. But if it is becoming a burden to you maybe it is time to move on.
JR
There’s a strong argument for picking the social communications site that works best for you. In my industry, I get most referrals from Twitter and nothing from LinkedIn or Facebook and so my attention is on Twitter where the money is and not on the others.
"...but I looked around realized that the people who were doing workshops were the ones not doing the actual, real world or fine art work"
Ouch - but I still chuckled.
I enjoy your blog and learn a lot from it, so I hope you keep writing. A blog like yours is valuable because it serves as a diary in which you can write as much or as little as you like, and you can instruct, cajole, ridicule, or whatever. Your readers obviously like what they see. Cheers and keep at it (please).
I think you should just use this blog as an outlet for your comments to other blogs or sites you read. Your back blog posts to Mike were great. They also made me want to visit his blog to see both sides. A double win.
David
Never use Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn, whatever. I don't even own a smart phone, and I am only on Facebook to keep up with distant relatives and friends. But as they (thankfully) post less, and less frequently, I find it easy to avoid Facebook too. My interest in it waned as the site turned into a cesspool of lies and garbage before the 2016 election, and I basically stopped using it after the revelations of user information being sold to Cambridge Analytica and other unsavory sorts. Life is too short to waste on social media, accomplishing nothing but making Zuckerberg wealthier.
Ken
Hi Kirk,
I did a gig for work that tangentially touched on social media - the “experts” that were brought in advised that in general; Facebook is used for personal relationships, LinkedIn is used for professional relationships, and Twitter tends to be used for politics and is heavily used by those working in traditional media. Of course there are exceptions to all of this, and they didn’t touch on Instagram (it wasn’t deemed relevant to the client’s social media strategy).
Just passing it on in case this may be useful. I find I just don’t have the time. With 3 email accounts (personal/junk mail, personal business and work), I just couldn’t be bothered spending time managing other accounts and looking at content that doesn’t interest me. My LinkedIn only gets used when occasionally needed.
Cheers,
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