I may have a case of social media fatigue

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 are 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.
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.
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Lyn Miller-Lachmann
7 years ago

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.

aliceincleveland
aliceincleveland
7 years ago

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.

Krash Override
Krash Override
7 years ago

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… Read more »

AliceinCleveland
7 years ago
Reply to  Shelly

You really gonna drop a ‘what I’m up too’ bomb like that and not offer a clue?

AliceinCleveland
7 years ago
Reply to  Shelly Corbett

I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayteeeeeeee waiting.

Balakov
7 years ago

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… Read more »

Stefan K
7 years ago

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.

Colin Burden
Colin Burden
7 years ago

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… Read more »

Maëlick
7 years ago

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… Read more »

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