I really dislike social media, no. Really.

Ever since the humble implementation of Instagram back in 2010 the world hasn't been the same. What started off as a simple way to share images with friends has grown to become the biggest platform on the planet. Nobody could have predicted the growth of the platform, and arguably how it would change our relationship with content. In 2018 it was valued at $100 billion, in 2019 alone it generated $20 billion in advertising revenue. It's become the go to place for brands to spend big on campaigns and for individuals to share what they do and don't like with their followers. But behind the carefully crafted images, brand endorsements and collaborations. How are you benefitting from the platform?

I've always been reluctant to join social networks, I was late to Facebook, late to instagram, I never really bothered with Snapchat and I cannot ever see myself getting on TikTok. However, Flickr I enjoyed for its simplicity. I guess it was what Instagram is. It was the best way to share my photography and projects with an audience. My Flickr account was viewed over 20 million times, generating a healthy amount of leads for projects and campaigns that I went on to work with. I simply joined Instagram for the same reason, to share my work with those who were interested in it. This was way before the introduction of the influencer and light years away from the Instagram we have today. Around 2016-2017 was when I really noticed a shift in the platform. I was getting messages and emails daily from influencers asking to book me to shoot their campaigns and work. It sounded great at first, until my manager dived deeper to discover they weren't willing to pay, and in exchange offer me "exposure" by tagging me on their images. This has always been to me, the biggest joke amongst many industries - for how influencers love to push the boundary and get as much for free as possible. One may expect I'd jump at the opportunity to take photos of some girl with 25k followers, prancing up and down a street off Kings Road staring off into the distance for a couple hours. Needless to say, I didn't.

Yesterday I had a conversation with a good friend of mine, and how sick we both are of someone we follow who seems to post everything on their social media. Nothing is private and everything is a #gift #ad or #sponsored. A couple weeks ago they were even gifted a new fridge from LG, is someone really going to look at that post and think "you know what, I really think I need a new fridge now thanks to that post on instagram!" Honesty and integrity seem to have gone out the window in exchange for sponsored posts. I'd love to see more honesty on social media. From people spending their own money on products, reviewing them honestly saying if they would buy them again. It's easy talking about how great something is when you're getting paid to talk about it and the products have been gifted. Those who can afford to buy the most seem to get the most for free and be gifted the most. It's funny how social media works. They then promote how much they love the product, or how "excited" they are to be working with x or y brand... only to expect you to pay full price for whatever product or service it is, in turn benefitting them even more financially.

When I chose to retire from photography in 2018, it was well and truly because I fell out of love with it. Zac Des Brand was born in 2017 and became my true focus, the photography was just a great way for me to network and find myself in the right spots. This was again, thanks to Instagram. In a way, it's my extension of Linkedin. I noticed the influencer becoming a real lifestyle for some in 2018, some of my friends in fitness, automative and lifestyle were making a healthy amount a year off of the platform. When Love Island came around, a show I still am yet to watch an episode of.. we had entered a completely new era. People could go into the show a normal person and come out with a few million followers and lucrative brand deals. The fact the show is on once a year means the contestants really have to push to create as much of a name, or as much cash as possible in that time, before the next lot come down the conveyor belt. This is where we're at now. We've got people aspiring to post photos of themselves in their underwear, advertising hair extensions, fake tan and fast fashion brands for a pretty penny. How did we get here? More importantly, at what cost does this come at?

Over the last month or so, I decided to scale my screen time for social media right down. From 1 hour to 10 minutes a day. In that time I stopped mindlessly scrolling, and mindlessly following people who I didn't care for, or brought no value to my life. In that 10 minutes I had to ensure that I was allowing myself to consume the best content as possible. This is something I do think more people need to do. I used to watch people's stories and they'd be filled with the most pointless shit. Nobody wants to watch 10 clips of you in the club videoing random people off their faces. I'd sit there wondering to myself, why on earth did they post this? I used to mute so many people, then eventually I just removed them. I don't follow most of my friends on social media, to be quite frank I've never felt like I need to. Some see that as me acting God like, but I've always argued, does a follow between two people need to be present to solidify a friendship? Some of my best friends I don't follow whatsoever. To me, social media is a work tool. You'd never see me posting about a relationship on there, if you choose to, I'm not judging. I just think when a breakup occurs and you've got to do the whole unfollowing deleting of photos its one hell of a chore. The blogs love to speculate when people are fighting or broken up just because they've unfollowed each other online, is that the world we now live in?

I am a shareholder in a few different companies that have at times used Instagram and Influencer marketing for campaigns and to push brand identity. Have they worked? Yes and no, some have and some haven't. I myself am involved in a few brand deals which require me to post on social media. I remain as selective as ever when it comes to who I get involved with, but my saying has always remained the same. I could go a year and only post one image on my instagram and it wouldn't make a difference to me or my business.

One thing that I think we all need to realise is how much time we spend on these platforms, who we follow on there and what the effect/benefit that is then having on our lives. Who you follow online (especially if you’re someone that spends hours a day on the internet), is the single biggest influence on your life. Imagine if you could pick up a phone and listen to the world's smartest minds, in business, finance or the field that matters most to you. How transformative would that information be on your life, your health, your happiness and your wealth? And imagine, if access to that amazing information was free... 

IT IS. That’s social media. We all have the ability to follow the smartest people in the world and watch them think, discuss, and ideate. Choose to fill your social media feed with the smartest, most interesting, positive people in the world and stop allowing mental junk to impact your day to day life.

This was the easiest, simplest change which had the biggest, most beneficial impact on my life. Information is the privilege; you have to be the gatekeeper and the unapologetic defender of the information that does and doesn’t reach you.

FOLLOW BETTER. UNFOLLOW FASTER.