Seriously though this was an interesting read. I'm going to digest it for a bit but I agree with most of what you write here and certainly with the overall message.
I think it's important people take a step back occasionally and remind themselves why they are doing what they are doing on social media and make decisions and changes that work for them.
I know this will hit the prickly a bit hard, but we all succumbed to the algorithm and internet fame game at some point.
I know I winced when examining my own posting behavior late last year. But once I saw that I was "contentifying" my art, I recoiled and regrouped. It's now just a separation of goals for me, and I think that will work for my soul.
Thanks for this...im fairly new to the whole photography and posting my work kn social media (about a year)...early on I was definitely trying to do what you said here about trying to get likes/followers.
Over the last two or three months I know I've pivoted to more of story telling via my pics which I like. I post 4 to 5 days a week...but I only post pics I like/happy with and have a neat little story/idea to go with it...it is changing how I approach things.
I've always wanted to write but life has conspired against me. Doing what I'm doing now has given me a fun way to enjoy photography and writing.
It's great to be able to combine our interests this way! I also really enjoy writing, so I'm happy I have a space to do that.
As for the social media, I love being able to share and discover. I just dislike that the platforms emphasize busting your butt to deliver content and getting views. That's nowhere near my original intention of being there.
Thanks for the reminder! It’s too easy to get caught up in the whole content creator mindset when creating art and sharing it. I think that’s one huge reason I still use Flickr. It’s just a place to share art, not push content to others’ faces and track stats.
I feel the same about Flickr. People complain about its lack of social features but I think it's a good thing. It's quiet, and I can look at photos at my leisure, without nudges, cues, or habits to make me look away immediately.
Very happy to find a place for thoughtful and informative posts on Lego! I definitely share your disillusion with social media and desire to have a more permanent platform to share your work and thoughts. At the risk of sounding like an old man shouting at the sky I certainly prefer the older days of hundreds of unique little corners of the internet rather than everything being funneled into a handful of huge websites.
Instead of a place to casually browse an individual's entire work, social media is more of a superhighway speeding you past countless flashing billboards competing for your attention and money. There's no final destination, just infinite inertia. The way content is presented adds an intentional element of precarity where people are forced to appease the algorithm in order to show up on people's feeds. Not even the largest creators are free from the constant threat of a fickle audience losing interest so there's an urgency to churn out as much content as possible while the spotlight is on them. In turn, consumers of content are incentivized to constantly check for updates that will otherwise be quickly buried deep in someone's feed. This kind of system inherently precludes any sense of community and continuity. You're conditioned not to care about any individual's interaction with your work, just get those numbers up for a little dopamine hit! We trade meaningful discussion and contemplation for instant gratification and abstracted numbers increasing.
There's endless discussion to be had on the commodification of art and a certain mode of production exploiting people's natural desire to feel validated and share what they love. Forcing artists to chase commercially viable trends in order to eke out a living is a pretty obvious recipe for disaster but Horkheimer and Adorno have already put it much more eloquently than I ever could.
All of this is to say I love what you're doing here and am excited to see more from you! Obviously at your own pace and to your own tastes :)
Thank you! I think that many people really don't understand how the way content is presented affects how they feel about it as a viewer and a creator.
Environment is everything. I watched a social experiment video the other day about how an award-winning violinist playing a multi-million dollar Stradivarius on a subway platform only got $50 busking. Seats to his concerts start at $100.
People just can't see talent if they are in an environment that is noisy and busy. And that's how I view Instagram: a noisy and busy space where the point is to just find your exit as soon as you arrive.
I had a lot of thoughts on this topic, but it was your text that finally organized them and put them on the shelves.
I have always believed that I am not a content creator (although I have early work in my portfolio that could be classified as content), but at the same time I was embarrassed to call myself an artist. In my native language, "art" is something unconditionally recognized or deliberately rebellious, underground, but always with a deep meaning, sublime, sometimes barely perceptible. It's something I admire, but I'm not sure I'm worthy to be part of.
I understand what you mean, and I absolutely agree, but part of me says "how dare you?" Perhaps the matter is in the difficulties of translation and in a different perception of things. Who hammered into our heads that we are not worthy?
Your texts are great therapy for photographers traumatized by social media. Priceless. Thank you.
I think people have been cautious about saying this in public, but this very topic is spoken about in roundabout ways in every community, and especially about Instagram.
What is our real problem with people playing the popularity game though? It is clutter.
We signed up for a particular kind of inspiration-- or distraction as the case may be-- because we wanted it.
But what's happening is we don't want what's being created anymore because that person we followed has changed their focus and sold out to an algorithm.
What's being shared is spam. It's low quality. It's filler.
I can't credit this as an exploration into a new art form for personal growth. It's purely done for internet points.
And once upon a time we could simply unfollow and that would fix things. But now that Instagram's changed, we simply get recommended posts from them in our feed.
Thanks so much for reading and for your comment.
I'll label you as an artist because you create work that moves people. That's what art is for me.
🔥🔥🔥 cool article bro!
Seriously though this was an interesting read. I'm going to digest it for a bit but I agree with most of what you write here and certainly with the overall message.
I think it's important people take a step back occasionally and remind themselves why they are doing what they are doing on social media and make decisions and changes that work for them.
Haha! Thanks for reading.
I know this will hit the prickly a bit hard, but we all succumbed to the algorithm and internet fame game at some point.
I know I winced when examining my own posting behavior late last year. But once I saw that I was "contentifying" my art, I recoiled and regrouped. It's now just a separation of goals for me, and I think that will work for my soul.
Thanks for this...im fairly new to the whole photography and posting my work kn social media (about a year)...early on I was definitely trying to do what you said here about trying to get likes/followers.
Over the last two or three months I know I've pivoted to more of story telling via my pics which I like. I post 4 to 5 days a week...but I only post pics I like/happy with and have a neat little story/idea to go with it...it is changing how I approach things.
I've always wanted to write but life has conspired against me. Doing what I'm doing now has given me a fun way to enjoy photography and writing.
It's great to be able to combine our interests this way! I also really enjoy writing, so I'm happy I have a space to do that.
As for the social media, I love being able to share and discover. I just dislike that the platforms emphasize busting your butt to deliver content and getting views. That's nowhere near my original intention of being there.
Thanks for the reminder! It’s too easy to get caught up in the whole content creator mindset when creating art and sharing it. I think that’s one huge reason I still use Flickr. It’s just a place to share art, not push content to others’ faces and track stats.
Thanks for reading and commenting, John.
I feel the same about Flickr. People complain about its lack of social features but I think it's a good thing. It's quiet, and I can look at photos at my leisure, without nudges, cues, or habits to make me look away immediately.
Flickr is for the grounded.
Very happy to find a place for thoughtful and informative posts on Lego! I definitely share your disillusion with social media and desire to have a more permanent platform to share your work and thoughts. At the risk of sounding like an old man shouting at the sky I certainly prefer the older days of hundreds of unique little corners of the internet rather than everything being funneled into a handful of huge websites.
Instead of a place to casually browse an individual's entire work, social media is more of a superhighway speeding you past countless flashing billboards competing for your attention and money. There's no final destination, just infinite inertia. The way content is presented adds an intentional element of precarity where people are forced to appease the algorithm in order to show up on people's feeds. Not even the largest creators are free from the constant threat of a fickle audience losing interest so there's an urgency to churn out as much content as possible while the spotlight is on them. In turn, consumers of content are incentivized to constantly check for updates that will otherwise be quickly buried deep in someone's feed. This kind of system inherently precludes any sense of community and continuity. You're conditioned not to care about any individual's interaction with your work, just get those numbers up for a little dopamine hit! We trade meaningful discussion and contemplation for instant gratification and abstracted numbers increasing.
There's endless discussion to be had on the commodification of art and a certain mode of production exploiting people's natural desire to feel validated and share what they love. Forcing artists to chase commercially viable trends in order to eke out a living is a pretty obvious recipe for disaster but Horkheimer and Adorno have already put it much more eloquently than I ever could.
All of this is to say I love what you're doing here and am excited to see more from you! Obviously at your own pace and to your own tastes :)
Thank you! I think that many people really don't understand how the way content is presented affects how they feel about it as a viewer and a creator.
Environment is everything. I watched a social experiment video the other day about how an award-winning violinist playing a multi-million dollar Stradivarius on a subway platform only got $50 busking. Seats to his concerts start at $100.
People just can't see talent if they are in an environment that is noisy and busy. And that's how I view Instagram: a noisy and busy space where the point is to just find your exit as soon as you arrive.
I had a lot of thoughts on this topic, but it was your text that finally organized them and put them on the shelves.
I have always believed that I am not a content creator (although I have early work in my portfolio that could be classified as content), but at the same time I was embarrassed to call myself an artist. In my native language, "art" is something unconditionally recognized or deliberately rebellious, underground, but always with a deep meaning, sublime, sometimes barely perceptible. It's something I admire, but I'm not sure I'm worthy to be part of.
I understand what you mean, and I absolutely agree, but part of me says "how dare you?" Perhaps the matter is in the difficulties of translation and in a different perception of things. Who hammered into our heads that we are not worthy?
Your texts are great therapy for photographers traumatized by social media. Priceless. Thank you.
I think people have been cautious about saying this in public, but this very topic is spoken about in roundabout ways in every community, and especially about Instagram.
What is our real problem with people playing the popularity game though? It is clutter.
We signed up for a particular kind of inspiration-- or distraction as the case may be-- because we wanted it.
But what's happening is we don't want what's being created anymore because that person we followed has changed their focus and sold out to an algorithm.
What's being shared is spam. It's low quality. It's filler.
I can't credit this as an exploration into a new art form for personal growth. It's purely done for internet points.
And once upon a time we could simply unfollow and that would fix things. But now that Instagram's changed, we simply get recommended posts from them in our feed.
Thanks so much for reading and for your comment.
I'll label you as an artist because you create work that moves people. That's what art is for me.