I may have a case of social media fatigue and I don’t think I am alone. Yesterday Instagram was abuzz about the upcoming change to an algorithmic curated feed, something similar to Facebook. Honestly, I couldn’t care less about this change; I think social media fatigue has set in.
It doesn’t matter what social media platform you play on, if you listen closely you will hear the sound of users complaining. I hear a fair amount of grumbling on all the platforms I play on and its making me wonder if I’m not the only one with a case of social media fatigue? We’ve all heard the bevy of complaints about Facebook: my feed isn’t in chronological order, there are too many ads, people only post memes, cat or baby photos. Twitter isn’t much better; the complaints usually focus on the typical it’s hard to understand, no one users it anymore except for so called social media experts or if there is a world crisis. Flickr seems to be struggling now that groups having less relevance since it’s 2013 upgrade and Google+ is once again trying to reinvent itself with collections and creator driven content. No platform seems to be immune, yet new social platforms spring up every year. No wonder I’m feeling fatigued, who can keep up?
Instagram continues to tinker with its platform, first with ads and now with curated feeds. Needless to say the natives are panicked. Personally I’m not worried because there is more to life than pursuing likes and followers on social media. There is a reason that major celebrities are outspoken in their objection to this upcoming change, they know that it’s only a matter of time before Instagram asks them to pay to have their posts seen similar to Facebook.
But lets face it, thats not us. Are we really so shallow that we’re only posting to Instagram for the likes and followers? My favorite quote I saw yesterday came from Bobbyhundreds
“Make superior content and your Instagram will be seen. As it should be. For the rest of us remember: YOU ARE BIGGER THAN YOUR INSTAGRAM. Maybe this will restore some sense of humility and sanity to this social media game. Instead of chasing validation and racking up some imaginary popularity score hopefully we can return to sharing things we are proud of, regardless if they are Liked. Don’t turn on your notifications for me, unfollow me if you prefer – I will continue to create, whether people are watching or not.”
While I’m not a huge account like Bobby Hundreds, I couldn’t agree with his opinion more.
I’m going to take this upcoming change as an opportunity to adjust how I approach my social media time. My current goal is to post less content and hopefully better content and only to the platforms that I care about.
Quality really is better than quantity.
If you’re like me and you have a case of social media fatigue I think you should be celebrating this latest news from Instagram. If this change helps people to focus on creating good content and engaging in meaningful ways with their community I think we will all win.
With this latest change to our social media universe I’m sure followers and like counts will fall, but If you’re engaging on social media to meet interesting people and create a community, that shouldn’t matter. And if increased followers and numbers of likes per image is important to you, I have faith that you’ll find a work around.
I’m not going to be changing anything that I’m doing on Instagram; you don’t need to turn on notifications to my account. Know that I’ll still be hanging around the edges. If we’ve meet and you’re a part of my Instagram family, rest assured I will find you and support your creative efforts no matter how much Instagram changes how they deliver the photos to me. Instagram is still my creative home as is G+ and more importantly here at Stuck in Plastic.
~ Shelly
Have you read any good books lately? I’m currently reading The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks and I’m loving it. I recently finished Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card and The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. Both excellent books if you enjoy science fiction or fantasy genres. Did you know you can also find me on Goodreads?
Taking photos of LEGO is more fun when you’re with friends. This photo was taken on a recent rip to Portland, USA when I hung out with three lovely lady toy photographers. We captured the last remaining light of a beautiful day together. For me, that’s social media at its best.
I’m feeling guilty because I haven’t been on Instagram in nearly two months. I picked up some translation work and needed to finish three picture book texts, and the more I was away, the harder it was to go back. In the meantime, I’ve built two more MOCs that I’d like to show off, so I will return soon. But it’s hard to come up with valuable original content aside from the MOCs, which take time and resources to build.
Quality is better than quantity Lyn. Certainly your translation work is more important than any social media site. I read that Simon and Schuster is creating an imprint for books featuring slims. So great to see some movement on an issue I know is one of your priorities.
The Ender’s series is one of my favorite book series to date. When I first started playing tabletop wargames I always tried to split my squads as Ender did in the Battle Room from Ender’s Game. Not always the most appropriate choice but damn I love those books.
I loved Speaker for the Dead so much more than Enders Game. I love the idea of someone speaking at your funeral / memorial service to bring closure to a life, even a flawed life. I also appreciated Ender’s search for his own forgiveness and some resolution to the harm he caused in the first book. Also the shifting opinions of the Hegemon certainly have a ring of truth in them. If you like gaming, check out The Player of Games. Its the ultimate game for the ultimate stakes.
I would take it one step further and say not to create content to get noticed. Create content that you like. Create it for yourself. *That* is way more satisfying than trying to predict what is “cool” and what people want to see. I think the main reason I don’t have the amount of followers as the “heavy hitters” in the toy community is that I will post a visually unappealing picture sometimes. Some custom progress shots are taken haphazardly with epoxy-covered hands…they get less than half my “normal” likes but I honestly do not care. I like lifting the veil to what it takes to create something from a hunk of broken plastic and if it is not an exciting photo to some then so be it. As far as the algorithm….let the dominoes fall. I’ve been steadily burning out on IG ever since they added video. With any luck this algorithm thing will push me away even more which gives me more time to create!
Dennis, we are in complete agreement! I for one love you behind the scenes picks. I love to see how you take a broken piece of plastic and breath new life into it. I find it fascinating.
Ig has always had an unhealthy fixation with Likes and Followers, I’m actually hoping with this new twist, it will bring some sanity to the platform. I would rather have a smaller set of engaged followers than thousands more that simply breeze past my latest post. How does that help me?
Im also looking forward to backing away from social media for the very same reasons. My post tomorrow will reveal what I’m really up to, and Im sure it’s not what you think. :0
You really gonna drop a ‘what I’m up too’ bomb like that and not offer a clue?
It’s not earth shattering, and if anything, it’s embarrassing. You can wait… 😀
I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayteeeeeeee waiting.
Shelly, this a very relevant post for me, both with the mention of social media and books! I read Cal Newport’s “Deep Work” recently (something I was going to mention even if you hadn’t bought up the topic of books) and just acknowledging the distractions that social media and email bring was enough to get me to cut down. I have almost abandoned Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Reddit and it’s surprised me how much more I’ve been able to do. I’ve read four books in the past week, I normally get through one a month.
Regarding Bobby Hundreds comment, that is basically the synopsis of Cal’s other book, and one I found very enlightening, “So good they can’t ignore you”. If you concentrate on making good stuff, people will come.
As for fiction, I’ve just finished reading Asimov’s Foundation original trilogy, but you’ve probably read that. I’ve liked all of James Smythe’s sci-fi, and if you’re info epic fantasy, Robin Hobb’s books are amazing.
I’ve added you on Goodreads, although I haven’t kept that up-to-date for about a year!
Hmmm, it sounds like I should put Cal Newport’s book on my to-read list on Goodreads; right on top. 😀
At this point Im not sure if I even care if ‘the people come’. I want to do my best work for myself; Im tired of doing work that is almost excellent.
It’s been years since I read the Foundation Trilogy. Maybe I need to re-read those. I will look into the James Smythe and Robin Hobb’s books as well. I spent so many years in a book club that the last six months of choosing my own books has been rather liberating! I feel I have lots of ground to make up.
You need to read this book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/74034.Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death Both Vesa and I have read it and it’s even more relevant now than when it was written. Hmm…maybe we should get Vesa to join Goodreads then we can have a StuckinPlastic book group too! Nah, he would just make us read Valerian. 😀
Always has and always will take photos for myself. Find it hard to take one just to impress others. If only 1 or 2 likes them so what. If I can make someone smile it’s even more worth it. We need to smile more in this world I think, the world need to be more goofy 😉
Books? Reads a lot of SciFi. I would recommend “Hyperion” by Dan Simmons, a different scifi book. And also “Valedor”, a Warhammer 40000 book. Liked the way the characters spoke, almost like oldschool theatre.
Stefan, thanks for the book recommendations. I will look them both up. 🙂
And yes I couldn’t agree more, the world needs to lighten up!
IG’s changes, I’m not too bothered about as (as I’ve mentioned before) the good old days of IG have long since passed, but I don’t have the inclination to post as much as I used to and I find my subject matter evolving away from comedy. I’ll have to drag that back as there is enough sombre stuff out there already.
Facebook, however, is a useful tool; Karen and I pick-up a lot of local work via FB. However, in my personal feed everyone is sharing other people’s stuff, but very few are actually saying anything, which I find a great shame. Seems to negate the purpose of being on there.
As for books: currently reading Carte Blance; Jeavery Beaver’s take on literary James Bond, which is promising (not got that far yet!). Lined up afterwards is Just Can’t Get Enough: an updated Depeche Mode biog.
I read a few of Ian M Banks’ books back in the 80s, which was the height of my bookreading: The Wasp Factory, Walking On Glass and Consider Phelbas. Loved the first two, but found the third a bit of a trudge.
Another of his books, The Crow Road, was made into a BBC TV series in the 90s and starred Peter Capaldi (I wonder what happened to him?).
Colin, I think almost all social media has turned into re-sharing. Very little new content is created. Why? Probably because if anyone actually shared a real opinion it would enrage someone somewhere. We live in a vigilante justice world and its not safe to express real options on real issues.
Im glad you have found a use for FB. That is awesome. It never clicked for me and it hasn’t generated much for my photography, I seem to do better on G+. Go figure 🙂
Thank you for the book recommendations. I might have to read more books by Mr Banks, The Crow Road seems like an excellent candidate. 🙂
I think there are two point of views. There is the one of the content creator and the one of the viewer. As a creator I completely agree with what you say: I don’t care about these upcoming changes. I never understood popularity contests and couldn’t care less if people gets angry because their content might not get as visible as before. No matter what, good content will always find an audience.
But as a viewer I understand people that don’t want a non chronological feed. People are complaining everytime a social network is changed. I remember on Facebook many years ago when people were raging each time they were updating the user interface. I think many people simply doesn’t like change. But changing the way content appears on the feed was what made me run away from Facebook. It makes you lose control over what you want to see and it’s very frustrating.
I completely understand people that don’t want this to happen on Instagram. But personally I don’t care that much either because anyway I’ve never really enjoyed using Instagram for looking at photos. I only joined because that’s where most toys photographers are active and I didn’t want to miss so much content. But after more than 6 months using it I already feel tired and have a hard time catching up with my feed.
I don’t know if I really have a case of social media fatigue. I think I lost excitement about social networks many years ago when I got tired of wasting my time on Facebook. I always had such a hard time keeping following everything that from time to time I just need a break and disappear from any social network platform for a few days.