Now 68.
Since it's my birthday and I get to do whatever I want I deactivated my Instagram
account. I got tired of generating free content for the folks at Meta to use to
help generate huge bundles of cash. Seems like the model for most free use
sites is to get the participants to make stuff other people want to read or watch
and then to make money when people show up to do just that.
I also worry about identity security on the various sites that everyone uses.
I mean, there is little to no risk for an anonymous commenter to come on
and bitch about my opinions but I feel like having too much
social media presence (like a blog) is an efficient way of putting a target on
one's own back for all those folks who like to hack and make
the rest of us a bit miserable.
With ever diminishing interest in traditional blogs and an even quicker
progression of disinterest in traditional photography it feels that the
risk/reward equation of posting keeps tilting toward unprofitable.
Not "unprofitable" financially but in a more general sense encompassing
personal security and general loss prevention.
I have been guilty of crying "wolf" too often in the past when it comes
to quitting the blog but then here we are again.
The options for entertainment based solely on photography continue
to contract. And who in their right mind could blog about swimming
everyday? Not even me.
I'm heading out the door for one of those long walks on which I make
either profound or knee-jerk decisions. Stay or go? Write, or
accept a good friend's advice to embrace irrelevance?
In the end continuing the blog or shelving it isn't going to make even
a small ripple in the fabric of social media or photography when
viewed against the sheer numbers of people out there doing
their own stuff. Living lives in blissful ignorance that there
was a guy in Austin hammering away on his keyboard for the last
15 years or so, trying to make a life as a photographer sound interesting.
I am now also Facebook free. Twitter free. And probably soon to be Flickr
free. And with each peeling of the onion -- less encumbered.
