A lot of us think of social media as a sort of necessary evil: if we're not comfortable with it, we still engage with it because it gets our name and work out there. One photographer deleted all his high-follower accounts and went without social media for a year, and he was quite pleased with the results.
Coming to you from Dave Morrow, this interesting video essay examines how his life and creative output changed and/or benefited from disconnecting from social media. I have to admit that lately, I've been really questioning the assumption that photographers have to keep an active social media presence. I'm certainly not arguing that increased visibility helps, but whether it's worth the time, effort, (often) money, and mental toll that feeling constantly beholden to a social network often creates is another question. While the benefit to his creative process was expected, I found it especially interesting to hear Morrow talk about how his website traffic actually increased after he quit social media. Of course, this is just one case and doesn't represent every photographer's unique situation, but it is promising to hear his story and how it didn't affect his overall success.
Lead image by Free Stocks, used under Creative Commons.
Considering everyone contacts me through a social site where they see my work, I'm trapped.
Yet you posted on a youtube platform. . . lol
LOL - I was thinking the exact same thing. YouTube is one of the biggest social media platforms out there. But overall I agree with what he’s saying.
I post shoot vids so I get contacted from everywhere.
I'm an admitted hater of social media, or more appropriately termed, anti-social media. I refuse to use Disgracebook or Twitter, I quit G+ about three years ago. I do post to Instagram, but I don't let it consume me or subconsciously define my worth. I treat it as a fire-and-forget platform. I don't worry about those quick dopamine hits. If people see my work and like it, fine, if not, fine. My thought is to use the platform and not let it use me.
Social is a tool, not an extension of who you are.
Just my $0.02,
John
I've hated social media since forever. Well, rather, I hate all the importance lent to it. Making it a source of serious news is, frankly, ridiculous. If you want to share personal this and that, fine. But, having this foolishness be the all important, all consuming beast it has become is frightening.
Amen!
Holy crap, Alex! Did you hunt this down just for me!?! :-D
Not a fan of any Facebook owned stuff, basically algorithms making people slaves to be popular and jump through hoops.
2 years ago I deleted all of my accounts and online presence. It was scary at first what would I be missing? Will I be left out of group events? Will my work suffer? How is anyone going to know I'm alive if all my stuff is deleted.
Once I pulled the trigger, and I mean I pulled the actual trigger, I didn't do account de-authorization. I did account deletion which on Facebook takes almost up to 90days to delete an account off of servers so you can never have it back. Snap, IG, Twitter take 30 days. Google was another story.
I noticed fewer emails coming in from advertisers. (which they sell all your information to ad companies) A lot fewer notifications on all my devices. Then something strange happened. I no longer used my phone much anymore. I had no reason for it other than a quick text or phone call. No more pointless notifications from social media, since I didn't have accounts I deleted the apps. My phone became just a phone again. I even stopped using the stupid low-quality cameras which price hike the cost of the phone up. I own DSLR, Mirless cameras and I would spend time using a phone camera. (ignorance). I now use my phone for 3 things, Calls, Text & Calendar.
Life has become simple again. I've received job offers I've never had before because people can't pull up my life on social media and have a personal bias against me. There is less drama between me and friends. People actually ask me how my life is going because they are not seeing it every 1.5seconds on a wall that means nothing.
I would highly suggest you all get off this closed system. Try it for at least 4 months.
"I've received job offers I've never had before because people can't pull up my life on social media and have a personal bias against me."
I think that's huge. I can't understand why anyone, looking for work, would tell the world how they feel about politics, products, people, etc..
That sounds so refreshing! Kind of like LIFE BEFORE SOCIAL MEDIA!!!
I don't know what life AFTER social media is like unless you count photography blogs. :-)
Especially now, I'm seriously considering dumping FaceBook. Privacy is an afterthought with Mark *uckerberg and I can't believe the other platforms view it any higher than a nuisance. I might keep Instagram and Pinterest because they're photo related. But, Twitter is almost as bad as FB. FStoppers and YouTube keep me quite happy. I'll keep my website too: http://www.robertnursephotography.com (shameless plug).
I don't understand the idea of YouTube being a Social Media site. I watch tutorials and occasionally a music video but that's all.
Having visited your site before, you SHOULD plug it! You're really quite good.
You know, I'm so freaking tempted to follow suit!
Really enjoyed this!
I've been moving in this direction for a while. Probably going to follow Dave. I stopped trying to learn the algorithm of the week for each platform a long time ago. And all those mini diversions throughout the day to check social media have yielded no return on the time invested and that time adds up. I concluded a while ago that for the overwhelming majority of business owners, time spent on social media is as effective for business development as time spent watching TV. There's a huge myth about generating leads through social media that everyone buys into at their own peril and expense.
For the video content that I've been creating more and more of lately, I'll still continue to use YouTube as the incredible resource it is (free storage for online video), but I don't try to grow my YouTube subscribers, I publish my video content through my website and try to grow a subscriber list there. For photography, good old fashioned in-person networking is where I find leads. Social media hasn't helped me at all, despite me putting significant effort into it.
It's the devil and everyone knows it. I'd do it if I can detach my photography page from my personal page (facecrook). Otherwise, I just try to keep above the fray. Hard. But I don't put up nonsense on my personal page.
I'd just like to be able to hump a 25 pound pack through the wilderness while continuously talking in a normal voice without collapsing.
Hi all, I completely disagree with all the comments here. I do not have a problem with social media. I use it to get work and draw people to my website. I have been contacted via huge brands via Instagram like Adidas, Samsung and I'm also currently working with Squarespace. I do not worry about what the algorithm is doing I'd rather worry about raising the quality of my work. I have met and created content with so many amazing photographers via IG. Its become part of my daily ritual.
Ben