Life After Social Media, Three Years Removed

I originally titled this piece “Life After Social Media: The Reckoning,” but thought it too melodramatic. It did make me smile, though.

It was around this time three years ago when I quit social media. No doubt you remember where you were or what you were doing that day. I am often asked by other photographers how life has been without social media. Specifically, they are interested in how it has affected my photography, both creatively and from a business perspective, since this is my full-time profession. It’s an understandable question, one that I am happy to indulge, if for no other reason than it makes for an interesting blog topic. No one really likes social media, and I feel their curiosity stems from a desire to quit as well, were it not for fear of potential negative repercussions. You can rest easy, I have lived to tell the tale.

To provide context, it would be helpful to revisit the reasons I quit, as outlined in my blog post from that time. To sum up, the reasons were largely two-fold. First, there were ethical and moral reasons; namely, the deliberatively addictive nature of social media and its complete indifference (support?) of the spread of misinformation. It’s not hyperbole to say that social media is having an incredibly destructive effect on society. However, for this essay, I will focus on the more personal reasons, mainly the endless noise and “Look at me!” culture of social media. In short, I didn’t like the person I had become. I began to question the true and underlying motives behind posting images. What was I really looking for?

It is perfectly normal and healthy for an artist to share their work. Some argue that that is the artist's primary objective. After all, we are expressing ourselves through our art, and we want an audience that will listen to and appreciate what we have to say. We seek that connection. But with social media, sharing my work felt disingenuous. It felt more like I was chasing validation. I paid attention to the number of likes and comments. When an image “performed” well, I was validated; when it didn’t, I was frustrated, even though I still believed it to be a good image. Fortunately, I have never let audience response influence my photography. 

Nevertheless, a part of me felt slimy for sharing my work. I felt like a narcissist. Worse were the feelings of envy, jealousy, and doubt over the work and accomplishments of other photographers that ceaselessly filled my feed. I was forced to confront uncomfortable truths about myself. I would have liked to think I was better than that, that I was immune to comparing myself to others and seeking validation. Alas, I was not. I had become too focused on what others were doing and was letting it cause doubt and frustration. The noise had become too much to ignore.

I would like to say that quitting social media has had a profoundly positive impact on my life and photography, but I can’t, nor did I expect it to. There was a period of adjustment, just like there always is when we quit something addictive. At first, I missed the frequent feedback to which I had grown accustomed. I didn’t post daily, but I shared an image roughly once a week. Post social media, the frequency of sharing my work decreased, timed around either an update to my website or the publishing of an article or blog post, all of which tend to occur on a monthly (or longer) basis. Moreover, the sharing of my images today isn’t meant to elicit a response. They usually accompany an article or blog post, or are part of a newsletter. There is no “Like” button to click, no quick way to leave a comment. This is an important and marked departure from social media, where every posted image is an open invitation to judgment.

These days, weeks pass without anyone seeing my work. I confess that it does contribute to the feeling of working in a vacuum, which I have mentioned before, I struggle with. In a recent email, a contemporary photographer of some renown mentioned that I had been “pretty quiet lately” and that he hoped I was “still making some amazing images.” Clearly, he doesn’t subscribe to my newsletter or blog posts. If he had, he would see that I was as active as before. He is not alone. I have heard similar comments from others I left behind on social media. In a way, I felt as if I’d disappeared. For a time, anyway. But what really happened is I’ve changed the manner in which I engage with others. It’s now more intentional, more focused, more real. There are a handful of photographers with whom I correspond based on shared sensibilities and mutual admiration for each other’s art. Social media isn’t the only vehicle for communication.

As for its impact on my photography business, that was never a concern. I knew all along that Facebook and Instagram contributed little to my bottom line. Before leaving, I was careful to cultivate a following centered around my website and newsletter, both of which serve to not only showcase my photography but also advertise workshops and presentations. It is a smaller but more engaged audience than what I had on Facebook. The vast majority of my social media audience was never interested in attending a workshop or purchasing a print. The images I posted were nothing more than a fleeting rest stop on their daily scroll.

Ultimately, leaving social media was correcting a wrong in my life, nothing more. Free of the noise of social media, the world has become a quieter place. I have more control over what I see and who sees my work; I am no longer dependent on algorithms. With time, I now realize that it has forced me to refocus on the intrinsic rewards of photography, the joys of meaningful experiences, and creative epiphanies rather than extrinsic rewards. Satisfaction is always deeper when it comes from within.

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