Succumbing to the socials
Leo & the socials.
In the early 2000s, somewhere around 2002, while I was living the carefree life of an itinerant in London, I joined this new thing on the internet called facebook. LIke lots of spaces in the online world it was new and a bit of a joke to put up a load of bullshit answers to posts and ridiculous status updates. But within the space of six months or so facebook had spread like a cancer such that everyone seemed to have an account and connected, and the bullshit I’d posted there people who followed me started to take seriously. It got to the point that I felt an obligation to update it seriously. And that felt like a burden I could do without.
Back then, it took me another six months or so to decide I could live without facebook, and when I deleted my account it felt like I’d been released from that special obligation that had hooked me in. And there I happily stayed for another seventeen years or so, as facebook steadily grew and I steadfastly knew that I didn’t need facebook, even when I’d follow a link to something interesting then realise I couldn’t view it because I didn’t have a facebook account. It was a small price to pay to keep from slipping back into that obligation. Even as Instagram and Whatsapp got eaten up by facebook I thought, well I’m so entrenched in those I can’t avoid it. I’m not pursuing facebook, it’s chasing after me.
A few weeks back I cracked. Setting up my website I was trying to integrate an aspect into Instagram (long story, still haven’t cracked it) and I realised it was impossible to do without having a facebook account. So I joined. Again. After seventeen years of not joining. It’s the classic, you can check out but you can never leave, or, if you can’t beat them join them.
So, you know, I’ve checked back in. And I thought while I’m at it let’s start engaging with Twitter. And Behance. And whatever else waves its salacious tail at me once I’m sucked into the vortex. I wish there was a way I could try to engage the world with my photography without all the socials. But as yet I can’t see how that is, without being a total obscurity. If you’ve got any tips, let me know!
