You don't need engagement
Social media is killing your hobby
A couple of my short-form videos on Instagram and TikTok got some traction recently, sending them into the millions of views. When my teenage son saw this, he was impressed, but then cocked his head and furrowed his brows.
“You don’t have a lot of comments though,” he noted.
“Oh, I turned them off for non-followers on Instagram a long time ago. Too much spam. Off for everyone on TikTok.”
“Mom! Why would you do that? That’s engagement! You would have gotten so many more views! I’d never follow you if I knew I wouldn’t be able to comment!”
And that, dear reader, was when I knew for sure that I made the right decision: a 13-year-old boy was annoyed he might not be able to add his fleeting thoughts everywhere.
But seriously, why do I need engagement? I’m not a creator. I’m not a brand. I’m not a business.
I don’t need to know what the ROI on my post is or if should make more posts like it. I don't even have a content calendar.
I’m just a regular person enjoying my hobby and putting it out there.
That last part though— putting it out there— is the danger zone. It's outside of the hobby itself but for many of us, posting on Instagram is the final act.
When we share on social media, we invite pressure. Pressure to get likes, comments, saves, reshares— engagement.
It's so much pressure it convinces us that the thing we love doing on our own and for ourselves only has value if other people react to it.
So what do we do? We start creating for the algorithm instead. The algorithm values engagement.
And that's exactly when toy photography is no longer a hobby for us. It's work. We put KPIs on our joy.
The toy photography community’s KPI du jour is comments (we're behind though because it's actually “sends per reach” now lol).
Any comment will do, no matter how low effort.
Under one of those viral videos I made, one guy asked me where I got the custom cape I featured even though my caption was literally “I got this cape from so-and-so.”
The answer to his question was in plain language on its own line at the very top, with no need to scroll or tap to open, yet he commented anyway.
I triumphantly pointed this out to my kid who is well aware I don’t suffer fools gladly, but he was unfazed: “Then answer him! It’s still engagement!”
Maybe this sounds unbelievably stupid to say in an age where many creators gatekeep knowledge behind a “comment CAPE for info” precisely to get more engagement, but this just isn’t worth my time.
I pre-emptively give you the information so you don’t have to comment at all. Just read the damn caption.
Despite turning off comments and story replies which are crucial for engagement, brands still reach out to work with me. People still see my photos in their feeds. Most importantly, I still enjoy my hobby.
Likes and comments don’t influence what I make or when I make it.
So no, I don’t need engagement, and you probably don’t either. Maybe you’ve just been convinced you do.
New website
I launched the Stud Shooters website a few days ago and I’m pretty happy with it.
I think I finally settled on the About Us text after several rewrites:
On r/studshooters, we’re a curious and creative bunch, so we’re just as interested in your process as we are in your photos.
Everyone has something to contribute to our community: from new LEGO collectors to experienced builders, from beginners with phone cameras to professional photographers with 8 different lenses.
Our mission is to foster a healthy and welcoming online space for toy photographers to connect, share, and co-curate.
“Healthy” is my stand-in term for “not Instagram” lol.
“Co-curate” is simply how Reddit works: the members of a subreddit like Stud Shooters are the ones who float the most interesting posts to the top, not mods or juries. I like the democracy of it: the people decide how Stud Shooters is presented to the world.
Anyway, I’ll be fleshing this out over the summer with an Our Team section (I have a team!) and a blog for Stud Shooters features about our activities and other goings-on.
Those activities are up on the page too: On Assignment and Open Call. Submit photos for a chance to shoot a story based on a LEGO set we provide or to be included in my curated gallery on other LEGO blogs.
New rule
To prevent Instagram culture from seeping into the community, I added a new rule for posting to the Stud Shooters sub: share your approach.
Stud Shooters is a community of creative and curious LEGO photographers so we want to make sure we're fostering those qualities.
Today, we've added a new rule: share your approach.
All of us know the value of getting insights from the photographer so we've made it a requirement to describe your process, motivation, and gear a little bit whenever you share a photo.
That creates opportunities for other members to get to know you and your style better, and learn a thing or two about composition, lighting, or gear.
Now when you post here, you'll get a gentle reminder from the Automod to leave a comment after you post a photo like the one stickied above.
Posts without a comment from the OP (you, the Original Poster) will be manually removed by mods.
We hope this makes Stud Shooters a unique space on the internet, and not just another dumping ground for attention.
I was inspired by this post to include the rule. Now that’s the kind of thoughtful participation I love to see!