My Goal with Social Media

I write about social media here more often than I thought I ever would. (In fact, I never really planned to write about it at all.) I don’t post on social media nearly as much as I used to, and while I am guilty as anyone of mindlessly scrolling at times, it is a habit I am trying to break. 

It’s just that it never makes me feel great, and I always end up wishing I had spent the time doing something else (like writing here on the blog, creating new products and videos, taking and editing photos, or countless other things outside of my little world of photography). In other words, I would rather spend the time investing in myself. 

I see other photographers sharing daily photos and videos of themselves out shooting (essentially their highlight reels), make the inaccurate assumption that all day every day is like that for them, and it makes me feel like I am missing out. I know in my logical mind that their lives aren’t like that, but when you are constantly bombarded with that stuff it starts to feel that way. So then it raises the question: what am I doing wrong to be missing out on so much fun, adventure and photography?

To be clear, I don’t have some big problem with social media. It is what it is. It’s a huge business and it’s not going anywhere. And I’m not leaving it. But I’m just tired of it and don’t feel like I get a lot out of it - most of the time. It manipulates all of us constantly and I am noticing how it will even affect my mood at times. I’ll keep sharing some things from time to time, but I don’t plan to “hang out” there much.  

I’ve decided I don’t want to waste a lot of time on it “trying to become popular” or whatever you want to call it. The connections that are made are valuable, and I do appreciate that aspect of it. And I love to see all the beautiful images that are shared from my friends and other photographers that I follow. But overall, it never feels very social, and it definitely does not energize me. It’s mostly people looking for attention (I’m in that bucket too - we all are) and there is way more noise than signal.

“The goal of social media is to decrease my dependence on social media.”  - Jay Clouse

Jay Clouse summarized my feelings perfectly in the quote above. Yes, I will keep using social media but my goal is to get people off of whichever platform it is and to have them follow my newsletter, YouTube channel, and blog. This is where the real me hangs out, warts and all. :-)  It’s where I can share real, useful tips and techniques that I have learned the hard way. It’s where I can discuss topics in depth and share my insights. It’s where I can be myself, most of all.

Social media feels like a lot of positioning and posturing, and I just don’t have the interest, energy, or tolerance to play that game these days. Maybe I’m too old or tired, but it feels hollow. And I’m bored with it. 

But what’s getting worse is that it is absolutely overrun with AI content. I see it all the time, and I suspect it is only going to get worse. AI is making it quick and easy to create fake images, so there’s a plethora of it out there. You no longer have to be any good at some creative thing - just use AI to make it for you, and share!

In this AI-dominated world, it is difficult to stand out on a social platform, and you can’t possibly overcome the deluge of content (both real and AI-generated) to rise above it and have your content get seen. So I try to convince people to pop over here, sub to my newsletter or YouTube channel, or read the blog, and hang out with me that way.

It’s hard, and slow, and frankly the “rewards” (if you even want to call them that) are minuscule. But it’s me, and it’s real, and those that actually want to follow along will do so. And I appreciate that so much.

Thanks for being one of them!