Can you publish your photos on social media without being social yourself?

I have always been in love with computers. I’ve been using various sources of social media for ages and in late 2017 I started posting my photos regularly on various channels. In the beginning I was very active on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and tried to connect with other photographers and other independent content creators.

But there is also a life outside social media. It’s called “real life”. Ideally, these two world could go together hand in hand. After all, I only take pictures in my municipality. But although there was some overlap, it didn’t work out for me. So little time, so much to follow.

I have been good in making the best out of it. Until a few years ago when it became apparent that I didn’t have the focus that I used to have. At some point I had to do something. Little by little I retreated from my phone. I replaced colourful icons with dull text, I furiously curated which app can throw which notifications at me, I tried apps to control how much time I spent on other apps. Although all these things helped a bit, there was only one way to reduce my phone use: delete all social media from my phone.

"So little time, so much to know."

Removing social media from my phone was a hard choice because I regularly publish content on it and I was used to check throughout the day how well or bad a photo was received. I did that multiple times a day which didn’t really make sense. I love it when people like the photos I published after careful curation and final edits. It’s great when your creative work is appreciated. But I don’t need to keep myself updated that regularly. Maybe the current state of social media has become a net negative to people’s life. That’s a shame but also to be predicted when we only take and never give. Entrepreneurs are first and foremost in it for the money.

But if I only push content to social media, am I not as well only taking and never giving? Well, whenever I am on social media to post my work, I do press the like-button whenever I see something I like. I currently just don’t have the focus to stay on top of what happens online.

In retrospect, except for providing a platform for my work, social media didn’t really work for me back then and it surely doesn’t work for me now. And I think it’s OK to take pictures and share them with the public without much interaction. I love it when my work is being appreciated but that doesn’t mean that I have to go online to do the same in return. Artists are hardly ever in the museums where there work is exhibited. Social media is my museum. And while others take a few seconds of their time to look at my work and hopefully appreciating it, I will be busy making new photos.

Things change all the time and my current approach to social media will probably change over time as well. For now, just broadcasting my work on social media is good enough for me. Everybody has their own way of handling social media. This is mine for now. I don’t know what’s yours but I urge you to keep creating and sharing with others. Your creativity is -in a small way- a blessing to this world.