Why ARS is Better than Instagram

ARS: The superior ‘anti-social’ social media platform BY photographers, FOR photographers!


Why I am anti-Instagram

I think Instagram (the current form) is probably one of the worst ills of society. I think it has seriously fucked up the self-esteem of millions of people, photographers, and visual artists all around the world.

Why? It technically isn’t the fault of Instagram/Facebook. It is the whole ‘like’ and ‘follower’ mechanism. The basic notion is this:

You become like a crack-addict to “likes”.

I can speak from personal experience. Sooner or later you get hooked to the likes and followers, and you feel pressured to constantly produce and create to please your audience (instead of pleasing yourself).

Don’t do it for the algorithm; do it for yourself

FYI: Facebook owns Instagram

Even worse– you gotta game the algorithm. This means only upload once a day, exactly at noon (optimal). If you post too much the algorithm will punish you. If you post too infrequently, you will no longer appear in the feeds of others.

Thus, you become dependent on the hand which feeds you. This causes you to lose creative autonomy over your creative and artistic output.


Why ARS?

ARS is latin for ‘art’. I believe the photographs and visual art-works you make are LEGITIMATE forms of art. It isn’t a thing to be uploaded to a social network in order to receive external affirmation (likes). Nor should art be a popularity contest (Instagram and follower numbers).

Art is for you, by you, and shouldn’t be measured with external metrics.


Getting honest feedback and critique on your work

arsbeta.com

I can personally say that when I started photography, I wanted guidance, help, support, encouragement, and honest feedback/critique on my photos. But I couldn’t find this anywhere.

Nearly a decade+ later, I had the vision of ARS:

A constructive critique community for visual artists, photographers, and individuals to collectively empower one another.

And what is super unique about ARS is the ‘double blind’ mechanism. The person who gives you critique doesn’t know who you are, and you also don’t know who the person is who is critiquing you.

This allows people to be honest with one another without fear of “offending” the other person. Which is great– because it means you will get more real, genuine, and constructive feedback.


Try it out

Of course I get ‘mom goggles’ with ARS, as it is my creation (along with my friends Kevin, Cindy, Annette, and Jun who helped build it). Also shout-out to my friend Ben who encouraged and gave us guidance along the way.

Signup via arsbeta.com, and upload some photos you want honest feedback and critique on. And also go to the ‘rate’ tab, and start to give honest feedback to other photographers.

This is a win-win situation because as you’re critiquing the works of others, you better learn how to ‘read’ a photograph. And with that information, you can improve your own photography.

With ARS, everyone wins!

ERIC

Try out arsbeta.com right now