A well-written article. It took me a couple years but I was able to step back from, then permanently delete, my IG and FB accounts.
I'm a working photographer - for the most part doing commissioned work by individuals or businesses or community groups, but also personal projects. For years I (reluctantly) accepted the logic being fire-hosed at me by social media platforms - i.e. that social media "engagement" was an absolute must and a legitimate metric to gauge my success and attract business.
But then I took stock and realized that well over half my work was either repeat customers or direct (person-to-person) recommendations, and a fair chunk more was related to jobs I sought out and pitched to a client. An online portfolio (personal website or something fairly static like Behance) can be useful as a conduit for those relations, but algorithmic-driven likes and shares, in reality, played close to zero role in making my business viable. I looked back over 300 jobs, big and small, over a period of 4 years and tallied up how many of them I got solely because of social media presence.
I counted 2, totalling less than half of 1% of my income for that period of time.
That little analysis really helped me take a proper, critical view of what social media was doing for me, and what if required of me. It just added stress, took up time, had me comparing myself to others, and more subtly, limited my creativity and experimentation by shaping how I took photographs. Shit, I even briefly considered myself a "creator" before snapping out of it.
It still took me a while to delete the damned apps, but I'm happier for it. Perhaps I am missing out on gigs that I would otherwise get; I don't know. But I really don't care.
My advice (as much for myself as anyone else) is to define your practice / business deliberately omitting a "social media engagement strategy". It's been a healthier route for me.
I now wonder if the time I spend on Substack is really much of an alternative...? I guess that depends on how much value I place on this post, and peoples' reaction to it.
Thanks so much for this comment. Super interesting to hear it put this way.
What I didn’t include is the process of using it from an advertisers perspective, which I have occasionally done – you realise how much people are canalised into units.
Anyway, I think you are right to imply that professionally it is not worth the time and as a “creative” it is not worth the loss of dignity!
It's the first time I see the analogy with the primates picking parasites, and perhaps this is the best of all I've read. I gave up on Instagram a couple of years ago, in that I still have an account, but I am not spending more than 5 minutes a week on the app. The sense of freedom has been overwhelming ever since.
I refuse to view reels or stories on IG. It’s just the old school feed for me. I still post there daily, still get, if I’m lucky, maybe 10 likes at the high end, still review who I follow temporally (I use the “following” choice for my feed — these are photographers I enjoy taking the time to enjoy viewing — with the sound off). It’s funny, my “real life” friends and acquaintances no longer seem to follow my feed (other than my better half who always finds and likes my posts) at all. I have no clue who the few are who do routinely like my posts. Again, they are a mere handful. It’s super sad what we’ve lost on that platform. And yet, it’s true, I still scroll through there and catch up with my feed daily. But I’m stubborn enough not to jump through Meta’s algorithmic hoops.
Excellent as always! I was on Insta for all of 10 mins until I found out it cropped photographs. Haven't been back since. While I therefore have little direct reference to what you are saying, it is frightening. 25 years of escapism in a persons life. Wow. I don't like videos for their production values mostly, I don't need to see unshaven 20-somethings wearing a baseball hat, calling me dude, and telling me the secret to making successful insta photographs, or worse. I read recently that young people have no flesh and blood friends. They still blame COVID. It is much more fundamental than that! Many thanks for a great post!!
Thanks Søren. It could be possible to use Instagram as a way of connecting with the community in Glasgow. That is where the real life people and events are! But I find myself straying into the other brainrot.
The main reason for deleting Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp etc. is to remove support, tacit or otherwise, from billionaire fascists who don’t care about and actively undermine democracy.
I'm not a fan of censorship. Prohibition hardly ever works and often produces something worse. I'm with Christopher Hitchens on this issue (and lots of others). "Freedom of speech includes the freedom to hate." As for Substack. Use the platform. Don't give them any money.
I have had such a complicated relationship with Instagram and wanted to delete it many times over the last few months. I feel like I need it for my work, but do I really? Thank you for putting all this together in one post. It truly is rotting our brains. 25 years scrolling instead of living? That’s a scary number.
Nice article and so true. I am not a major user as I don’t have the time and when I do catch myself down a hole I realize I am not out doing what I love and that is making work-photography.
There is a subtle difference in the other times I have forsworn these apps, Caspar, in that I had never done so in the age of Stories and Reels. I have reached equanimity with the other aspects of the apps. Forswearing is part of the process of adapting, maybe.
I remember reading that social media algorithms, whose job it is to maximise your time on site, is many times more powerful than that which was used to beat Gary Kasparov at chess in 1997. As in, you can’t willpower your way into a healthy relationship with it, it will always win at the game of control over your attention!
I do wonder if the only solution is moving away from the ad-based model and instead paying for the service, then they can optimise for the overall experience of using social media and not simply maximising time on site so you see more ads.
Great analogy, Neil. I deleted my IG account and content a couple of years ago. I haven't posted on VERO for a year and I'm seriously considering deleting FB (though I've hardly ever posted photos on there - I just detest Zuckerberg and META.)
I'm looking at Foto and Irys - which are very much photography-centric - as options but I'm at the point where I will only take the photos I want to take and, as much as it's nice to get likes and comments, I won't chase them.
Thanks for the heads-up, Neil. I've barely engaged with Foto, to-date, so I'll bear your comment in mind. My main issue with IG was with the ownership and apparent randomness of direction. It was photography-centric when I first joined and then it was all influencers, shorts, videos and deciding for me what I should be looking at, rather than allowing me to make my own choices. In truth, most social media platforms share some of those characteristics and all of them are hell-bent on raising the level of engagement by every means possible.
Yes, I got an email from them the other day. There's quite a few happening worldwide - with a number across the UK. Mostly on 26/09 but some 27/09. The nearest ones to me are Cambridge or London. I'm not sure if I can make one, just yet, but that's the sort of properly 'social' thing that I think should be encouraged.
A well-written article. It took me a couple years but I was able to step back from, then permanently delete, my IG and FB accounts.
I'm a working photographer - for the most part doing commissioned work by individuals or businesses or community groups, but also personal projects. For years I (reluctantly) accepted the logic being fire-hosed at me by social media platforms - i.e. that social media "engagement" was an absolute must and a legitimate metric to gauge my success and attract business.
But then I took stock and realized that well over half my work was either repeat customers or direct (person-to-person) recommendations, and a fair chunk more was related to jobs I sought out and pitched to a client. An online portfolio (personal website or something fairly static like Behance) can be useful as a conduit for those relations, but algorithmic-driven likes and shares, in reality, played close to zero role in making my business viable. I looked back over 300 jobs, big and small, over a period of 4 years and tallied up how many of them I got solely because of social media presence.
I counted 2, totalling less than half of 1% of my income for that period of time.
That little analysis really helped me take a proper, critical view of what social media was doing for me, and what if required of me. It just added stress, took up time, had me comparing myself to others, and more subtly, limited my creativity and experimentation by shaping how I took photographs. Shit, I even briefly considered myself a "creator" before snapping out of it.
It still took me a while to delete the damned apps, but I'm happier for it. Perhaps I am missing out on gigs that I would otherwise get; I don't know. But I really don't care.
My advice (as much for myself as anyone else) is to define your practice / business deliberately omitting a "social media engagement strategy". It's been a healthier route for me.
I now wonder if the time I spend on Substack is really much of an alternative...? I guess that depends on how much value I place on this post, and peoples' reaction to it.
Anyway, thanks for the thought-provoking article.
Thanks so much for this comment. Super interesting to hear it put this way.
What I didn’t include is the process of using it from an advertisers perspective, which I have occasionally done – you realise how much people are canalised into units.
Anyway, I think you are right to imply that professionally it is not worth the time and as a “creative” it is not worth the loss of dignity!
It's the first time I see the analogy with the primates picking parasites, and perhaps this is the best of all I've read. I gave up on Instagram a couple of years ago, in that I still have an account, but I am not spending more than 5 minutes a week on the app. The sense of freedom has been overwhelming ever since.
There are still lots of people I admire on there, but the platform dynamics are atrocious.
Yep, parts of the brain, perhaps better than no brain at all. I never used Instagram though
I refuse to view reels or stories on IG. It’s just the old school feed for me. I still post there daily, still get, if I’m lucky, maybe 10 likes at the high end, still review who I follow temporally (I use the “following” choice for my feed — these are photographers I enjoy taking the time to enjoy viewing — with the sound off). It’s funny, my “real life” friends and acquaintances no longer seem to follow my feed (other than my better half who always finds and likes my posts) at all. I have no clue who the few are who do routinely like my posts. Again, they are a mere handful. It’s super sad what we’ve lost on that platform. And yet, it’s true, I still scroll through there and catch up with my feed daily. But I’m stubborn enough not to jump through Meta’s algorithmic hoops.
Very good that you have the discipline to use it as it should be used, but I find myself straying into Stories and Reels.
Excellent as always! I was on Insta for all of 10 mins until I found out it cropped photographs. Haven't been back since. While I therefore have little direct reference to what you are saying, it is frightening. 25 years of escapism in a persons life. Wow. I don't like videos for their production values mostly, I don't need to see unshaven 20-somethings wearing a baseball hat, calling me dude, and telling me the secret to making successful insta photographs, or worse. I read recently that young people have no flesh and blood friends. They still blame COVID. It is much more fundamental than that! Many thanks for a great post!!
Thanks Søren. It could be possible to use Instagram as a way of connecting with the community in Glasgow. That is where the real life people and events are! But I find myself straying into the other brainrot.
The main reason for deleting Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp etc. is to remove support, tacit or otherwise, from billionaire fascists who don’t care about and actively undermine democracy.
Funnily enough, one of the first comments I got about this on Instagram was berating me for posting on “Nazi-supporting Substack”.
They’re everywhere.
Given what happened in Germany this week, I would be interested if you think it would be worth doubling down on restrictions?
(Interesting to read this old Freddie Deboer article in this light: https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/you-cant-censor-away-extremism-or)
I'm not a fan of censorship. Prohibition hardly ever works and often produces something worse. I'm with Christopher Hitchens on this issue (and lots of others). "Freedom of speech includes the freedom to hate." As for Substack. Use the platform. Don't give them any money.
I have had such a complicated relationship with Instagram and wanted to delete it many times over the last few months. I feel like I need it for my work, but do I really? Thank you for putting all this together in one post. It truly is rotting our brains. 25 years scrolling instead of living? That’s a scary number.
What I find really depressing is seeing how far and how fast the platform has degraded. Pure idiocracy on my Explore page.
So true!
Nice article and so true. I am not a major user as I don’t have the time and when I do catch myself down a hole I realize I am not out doing what I love and that is making work-photography.
Thanks Maureen. Be thankful for those moments of catching yourself!
Haven’t you done this many times before Neil? I guess that’s the final proof of our dependency, we swear it off and yet can’t get away from it.
There is a subtle difference in the other times I have forsworn these apps, Caspar, in that I had never done so in the age of Stories and Reels. I have reached equanimity with the other aspects of the apps. Forswearing is part of the process of adapting, maybe.
I remember reading that social media algorithms, whose job it is to maximise your time on site, is many times more powerful than that which was used to beat Gary Kasparov at chess in 1997. As in, you can’t willpower your way into a healthy relationship with it, it will always win at the game of control over your attention!
I do wonder if the only solution is moving away from the ad-based model and instead paying for the service, then they can optimise for the overall experience of using social media and not simply maximising time on site so you see more ads.
Yes, Lou had a good post recently about why apps that are logs are more enjoyable https://irrationaltechnology.substack.com/p/the-log-is-replacing-social-media
A very interesting read 👍
I don’t relate to instagram … and definitely won’t now !
But admit to scrolling on Facebook, mainly for art ideas and healthy recipes, tho other stuff creeps in 😳
Average of 3 hours a day is a waste, isn’t it 😉🤔
Need to check your screen time stats next time I am down!
Great analogy, Neil. I deleted my IG account and content a couple of years ago. I haven't posted on VERO for a year and I'm seriously considering deleting FB (though I've hardly ever posted photos on there - I just detest Zuckerberg and META.)
I'm looking at Foto and Irys - which are very much photography-centric - as options but I'm at the point where I will only take the photos I want to take and, as much as it's nice to get likes and comments, I won't chase them.
Thanks Paul. I find Foto very strange - Instagram without the algorithm but also without much humanity!
Thanks for the heads-up, Neil. I've barely engaged with Foto, to-date, so I'll bear your comment in mind. My main issue with IG was with the ownership and apparent randomness of direction. It was photography-centric when I first joined and then it was all influencers, shorts, videos and deciding for me what I should be looking at, rather than allowing me to make my own choices. In truth, most social media platforms share some of those characteristics and all of them are hell-bent on raising the level of engagement by every means possible.
There is a Foto walk in Glasgow at the end of the month, so good to see they are engaging with photographers in a more human way.
Yes, I got an email from them the other day. There's quite a few happening worldwide - with a number across the UK. Mostly on 26/09 but some 27/09. The nearest ones to me are Cambridge or London. I'm not sure if I can make one, just yet, but that's the sort of properly 'social' thing that I think should be encouraged.