Why I hit the eject button on social media.

Quitting Social Media as someone who creates content, as a photographer and film-maker? You crazy??? Well, maybe…but hear me out.

How I had traded the corporate rat-race for the new rat-race of the attention economy - for the likes, the clicks, the followers and how I have just exited this attention & validation cat-and-mouse game.

“The Icarus Deception”

3 years ago, I left the corporate rat-race to fulfil my dream of living life on my terms. The journey that got me to this point where I am now living my dream every day however, started 7 years prior after I read the book “The Icarus Deception” by Seth Godin that sparked something in me that was sleeping.

Our education system teaches us to become effective cogs in the wheels of the industrial economy and subsequently the information economy. It values measurable results, conformity and above all - the avoidance of failure. But “making things” and “knowing things” are increasingly a commodity and have been replaced or will be replaced by robots and AI. To thrive in the connection economy however, creativity, frequent failure and iterations (as opposed to perfection) are required to succeed.

I was a fairly effective cog in the wheels of the information economy - as a senior manager in a software company, I was pretty much a perfect example of the modern corporate rat-race of being “always online”, “being pinged” left and right 24/7 and spending my day in “back to back” calls and meetings where pretty much no-one ever had anything meaningful to say or was willing to get out of her or his lane. And if we were lucky, the meeting organiser had the grace to finish the call early and “give us back time”…which I could then invest in trying to get my inbox to under 1’000 unread emails.

The fact that I ended up in the corporate world is actually fairly strange, since none of my childhood dreams ever included commuting, working to grow someone else’s business or wearing chinos (yup, I actually did for a while). As a child and teenager I had dream…BIG dreams.

I can’t remember what made me pick up “The Icarus Deception” in the first place but I do remember how I felt as I was listening to it (ironically, I consumed the book as an audio book on my commute). The author was not even halfway through the first chapter when I knew:

“There is no time to waste”…building someone else’s dream and living life on someone else’s terms and schedule - so, I decided:

“I am going to live life on my own terms.”

Cat-and-mouse game for validation

Fast-forward 10 years and I am now both fortunate and infinitely grateful that I get to set my own schedule, work from anywhere (mostly) and that I get to do what I love (nearly) every day. I am a business owner, photographer and film-maker, I own a well-established digital agency, a few early stage start-ups and I get to go on photography and film-making adventures.

So, everything is perfect then, right? Well, no…not exactly. For the past few years, I have been struggling and wrestling with how social media has been affecting me. And what had effectively become a cat-and-mouse game over my desire for validation on social media has been affecting my wellbeing.

I always had a gut-feeling that social media did not serve me well, that it was driving my feelings of anxiety, my fear of missing out and a constant sense of not doing or being enough.

I also never liked short-form video content yet I still created it and posted it because I felt I had to. I was worried that without a social media presence I would not “matter”. I would post photos and gauge their validity based on how many likes they get and from the comments. I would try and adopt some trending formats in the hope of getting views, but my heart was never in it. I kinda always knew this was not what I wanted to do. This was not how I wanted my audience to connect with me and my work and my content.

It was at my first photo exhibition last year at the opening night that it hit me like a steam train - THIS is an example of how I want to connect with my audience and how I want to share my work! In person, being able to talk to people, share the stories behind the images with them and create meaningful connections. Don’t get me wrong, I am very grateful for every like, comment and follower and the time they have taken to give me a like or write a comment. But I was realising that I may have traded a boss in a corporate structure for a new taskmeister, the algorithm, who was dictating how often, what and when I should post. I also realised that I was replacing the corporate rat-race with a new rat-race, one for your attention and my validation.

I yearned for more calm, to be more present in moments without thinking about updating my story. I would be on a photo location during sunrise, surrounded by total peace and beauty but my creative flow would be disrupted by what I felt was the need to post a little behind the scenes when all i wanted was to be in the moment, out there in nature, creating images that might make you feel something.

So, about 2 month ago, I stopped posting on social media and about a month ago, I deleted all social media apps off my iPhone and I am glad to report, I am still alive and the world has not ended. On the contrary - I would go as far as to say it’s been life-changing. I said I would give it a few months and see how I feel, what impact it had on me and where I want to go from here.

My mind is calm now, I have re-gained a huge sense of clarity and focus. I had the most successful 2 months ever in my agency business, my anxieties around missing out and not being or doing enough are all but gone and I enjoy taking photos and shooting video more than I ever have. And when I wonder out into nature to find and create images, I am 100% immersed in the moment - in the scene, the light, the mood…and that is enough.

I have decided that if I want to live life truly on my terms, that I cannot and will not spend the one thing I will never get more of (time) on apps that are not serving my mind, my wellbeing and my content. So,

I decided:

“I am going to share my content on my terms and on my own platform”

From now, I will create content in the format that I believe it is intended in, unaffected by any algorithm or trending audio and share it exclusively on my platform (here on my website). I am excited to find new ways of connecting with my audience in ways that work for me and are meaningful. The “Film-Making” section contains any videos and short-films I produce. I will share my photos in the “Gallery” section and those that are available as prints in the online shop or at current and future exhibitions. If you would like to follow me here, I invite you to subscribe to my blog and you will receive an email when I share a new blog post, a new photo series, a new video or a short film and of course I will let you know of future exhibitions.

I am super excited to share my content with you here in this format and hope you will join me on my journey - Just pop your email address in the below box and let’s get & stay connected.

Michel