Social Media Frustrations

I find that occasionally I need motivation to get out and shoot. I enjoy taking photos and sharing them but if I don’t have anyone to share them with I sometimes question why I even bother. Prior to Instagram I had a blog, with a handful of followers, so it gave me the little push I needed to shoot some photos, edit them and write a little story to go along with them. Over time my posts became less frequent to the point where I stopped and took a break from photography.

I was a little late jumping on the Instagram wagon but it has been a great motivator for me to go out and shoot. I typically only post once or twice a week (usually once a photo passes 100 likes) but with it being a very hot, humid summer (I hate summer) I haven’t gotten out very much. But it still feels like I have to feed the social media beast and put content up there, basically shooting for my IG feed rather than shooting for the enjoyment of it.

Something that kind of bothers me with IG is that there’s very little engagement. People just click like and move on, hardly even stopping to notice the picture. Then there’s all the people that buy followers and have bots to comment and follow/unfollow people which I think is beyond ridiculous. Or the fact that a blurry picture of someone’s half-eaten sandwich could get 1000+ likes and tons of comments, or photos I keep seeing posted/re-posted/shared that are obviously extremely photoshopped and completely unrealistic but then have 100’s of comments from people saying how amazing it is, how lucky they were to come across this scene, etc…….. when I usually struggle to get to 100 likes on what I consider to be a very nice photo that I spent time composing and editing.

Is anyone else tired of feeding the beast? Sorry for the rant.

I took a look at your Instagram and see that you're getting what I would view as excellent response to your posts (compared to what I tend to have). I have a similar quantity of followers but most are very inactive. After Instagram changed to an 'algorithm' approach to showing people posts in their feed it completely changed the dynamic of Instagram IMO. I find the follow/unfollow thing and the bots etc very lame...and I won't feed it.

also...what you and I (and other photographers) may view as a technically well executed image isn't as well received as something that has been technically over processed. I played around with editing techniques until I found a combination that seemed to be well received by the general Instagram community.

I need to make my way out your way soon. Been too many years since I've visited family.

Thanks Jeff. Love your motorsport shots! I've always wanted to try shooting that.

I much preferred when IG was chronological.

I really don't understand why the general public loves over the top HDR's and extreme saturation so much.

shane_c wrote in post #18676357
I really don't understand why the general public loves over the top HDR's and extreme saturation so much.

I don't understand that either. . It is hideously ugly to me.

Another thing I don't understand is the weird surrealistic compositing that I see, like putting a person's head up in the sky with clouds and planets and smoke around it. . Or a hand reaching up from out of a toilet bowl. . Or a face in the middle of someone's belly. . It's just a bunch of stupid ugly crap, yet it is so popular.

The mass popularity of this stuff erodes my faith in the human race's collective aesthetic sensibilities.


.

Instagram and other social media users are not "the general public." I don't say that just to correct you, but rather to get you to not place much importance in what happens in that world. I have an Instagram account but somehow got logged off and have not bothered to log-in in over a year. I have a Facebook account but don't use my phone to log in. I maybe go there 2-3 times a month but use to go on daily.

In other words, don't let this stuff bother you, it is not representative of anything other than a certain personality type.

Check this out:

www.marketwatch.com/am​p/story/guid/CD9846AC-9676-11E8-B4C0-9A68496384B1

On the other hand, maybe those are the type people you want to like you.

This thread made me think of an article published on PetaPixel a while back. Interesting read.

https://petapixel.com …ur-ego-from-social-media/

I just posted another thread somewhat related to this. How we consume images is changing. I currently now publish most my stuff in 16x9. I bring that up because if you look at TV and the lighting and over saturated images there, it kinda explains why the general public is becoming accustomed to hyper sharp, hyper colored images. Was watching an old episode of "Psych" and couldn't get over how red the actors lips were. It was crazy. For my taste I have had to detune my tv to make it acceptable. But walk through your local BestBuy or what ever, look how the TVs have been setup, and its over the top color and sharpening. People watch TV much more than they look at "art prints", so their expectations are being warped to match TV.

Kinda sad. See it here all the time. If I commented on every image I saw that was over sharpened with sharpening artifacts jumping off the screen, I would have little time for anything else. It's not just social media.... its everywhere... and TV is partly to blame.

Interesting read. Thanks!

Do you really want Likes from people who are only Liking because you are posting the same cookie cutter images that other unoriginal people are also posting en mass? Mobiles phones and Instagram have removed the barrier to entry for creating and viewing photography. You no longer need to struggle with expensive kit to make and you no longer need to go to a gallery/buy a magazine/book to look at.

What mobile phones and Instagram didn't do was give the unwashed masses any understanding of photography. They have no interest in thinking about it or understanding it, they just want to look at/Like the pretty picture and then move on. There is also little originality because the majority of people on Instagram are chasing those Likes, rather than doing/sharing photography. For that reason they just repeat what others have done that got lots of likes (from the people who don't want to think about photography). Hence you get an endless stream of shots of people standing on VW Camper Vans, pretending to push VW Camper Vans, camping next to VW Camper Vans etc etc.

Then of course there are the people trying to game the system. Their interest is in earning money by having a large following, so they use follow/unfollow bots to try and trick people into following back. All you can do is ignore them or (if they are particularly spammy) report them.

The solution is to ignore Likes and post the images you want to take. Focus on building a small organic following of people who like what you do.

Tom Reichner wrote in post #18676365
I don't understand that either. . It is hideously ugly to me.

Another thing I don't understand is the weird surrealistic compositing that I see, like putting a person's head up in the sky with clouds and planets and smoke around it. . Or a hand reaching up from out of a toilet bowl. . Or a face in the middle of someone's belly. . It's just a bunch of stupid ugly crap, yet it is so popular.

The mass popularity of this stuff erodes my faith in the human race's collective aesthetic sensibilities.

.

I agree completely.

shane_c wrote in post #18676357
I really don't understand why the general public loves over the top HDR's and extreme saturation so much.

Perhaps the payoff is a more intense sensory experience than routine adult life provides. Most days in the year aren't Christmas.

I think the answer is in the thread title: get off social media. If Social Media (FH misnomer, IYAM!) is the problem, step away form it. At least with your photography. If you really and truly need the praise of (for the most part) total strangers, there are bigger problems to deal with.

I don't use social media. I did try FaceBook about 4 years ago. I spent about 3 days trying to find a use for it (besides wasting my time), came up with nothing, and deleted my account. I've never tried any of the others.

My photography is the same as it was 50 years ago, an intensely personal something I do that satisfies me. I have never been particularly interested in what others think of what I do. For me, my camera has always been an escape, and a refuge. I have spent days at a local park, just shooting the birds and squirrels. One memorable day was spent on the campus of Indiana University with a 5Dc/14mm f/2.8. Lens set to f/8 and focused at 3 feet, all day, no changes. You see the world differently after a day like that.

Perhaps I shoot 5,000 frames per year that I intend to keep. I will show about 100 of them to my wife. For the most part, nobody but me ever sees the remainder of them. Exceptions: family gatherings/holidays, and such. I cull and turn those finished products over to my wife. She posts them on FaceBook. Friends and family make the occasional comment, or use one for their 'front page', or repost them. Great. Irrelevant to my enjoyment of the hobby, but I'm happy they find a use for them.

The point? Things you do for yourself, that come from within, will always be more satisfying than chasing others' approval.

Thanks for the reply. Over the years I've checked out of most social media and it has been quite liberating.

Instagram is the only platform I still use. As I mentioned earlier, I like to share my photos and it gives me a way to do that and I've taken a lot more photos since joining, very few of them I actually post.

But when I see some of the foolishness that goes on over there (people using bots, buying followers and likes, stupid totally unrealistic photos getting posted and reposted, etc.....) it makes me feel that I don't really want to feed the IG monster anymore. In a way it does make me feel as if anything I post is not actually appreciated by anyone on the other end and that of those that do click like they may or may not even be a real person. Is it worth spending time editing and posting up photos so that bots can like them and follow/unfollow me?

It's such a strange world we live in.

shane_c wrote in post #18677728
... In a way it does make me feel as if anything I post is not actually appreciated by anyone on the other end and that of those that do click like they may or may not even be a real person. Is it worth spending time editing and posting up photos so that bots can like them and follow/unfollow me?

It's such a strange world we live in.

Real people? Bots? I'm not sure the difference matters. Shoot what you like to shoot. Shoot for you. Push yourself in a new direction from time to time. Photography is an infinitely broad hobby, that can be as deep or shallow as you want it to be at any particular moment.

I try to please other people every day in my inter-personal, business, and family relationships. All well and good. My photography, my piano, and my golf game are for MY enjoyment, on my terms. The rest of the world can FOAD while I'm enjoying any of the three.

Just the other day we watched the 2000's on CNN and they talked about that very thing. It is so saturated these days and people just glance while moving onto the next thing. I had a web site in 2007 and it was a wow thing to have one. These days everyone has a site and we are flooded with millions of outstanding images.

My goddaughter tried to get me on instagram about a month ago but I fought her off for now I still maintain a website via Adobe's Portfolio but I don't promote it and there is no method of communication. I do have links at sites like here. I do it for the enjoyment and must admit getting a like is not bad thing. It mostly gets me to see what others are doing and makes me strive to do better. Keeps me going.