{"id":102741,"date":"2018-07-11T23:12:17","date_gmt":"2018-07-12T06:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=102741"},"modified":"2018-07-11T23:15:24","modified_gmt":"2018-07-12T06:15:24","slug":"social-media-treadmill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/07\/11\/social-media-treadmill\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Media Treadmill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear friend, I think a lot of us fall victim to a “social media treadmill”; we seek to get more and more followers for the sake of it; without really knowing or asking, “Why?”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"photolosophy\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"PHOTOLOSOPHY3\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Coming soon: PHOTOLOSOPHY course. Subscribe to ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER<\/a> to stay informed.<\/p>\n

\n
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A year ago I deleted my Instagram. Why? I fell victim to the social media treadmill; a metaphorical rat race, where you were simply seeking more followers for the sake of it, seeking more likes, just to keep up, or when comparing yourself with others.<\/p>\n

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The main problem was this:<\/p>\n

\n I was making photos to maximize my “likes” on Instagram and social media, not to make a body of photographic work that gave me a deeper sense of purpose or direction in life.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, deleting my Instagram has been the best thing I’ve ever done for my creativity.<\/p>\n

\n

The reason why the “treadmill” analogy exists is because of this:<\/p>\n

\n We’re just expending useless energy, running in a hamster wheel, just to keep up at the same pace, rather than considering the philosophical why<\/i> behind our photography.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

The first question is always asking ourselves,<\/p>\n

\n “Why do I make photos?”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For myself, I make photos to make an impact on society. I see my photography as visual sociology<\/a>; using my camera as a tool to analyze, critique, and change society. I work in the spirit of Lewis Hine<\/a> and Philip Jones Griffiths<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To me there ain’t a right or wrong reason to take photos. There is no ultimate ethical philosophy that applies to everyone; only you.<\/p>\n

This means, you must discover your own purpose as photographer; making photos for a greater good and for future generations, instead of just falling victim to uploading photos to the gram (because that is what everyone else is doing).<\/p>\n

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\n

You can decide to step off the treadmill<\/h2>\n
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You have the power to decide not <\/i>to play this silly rat race. Only use social media in a way which empowers you. If you don’t like it, recognize you have the power to quit!<\/p>\n

BE BOLD, brazen, and make photos which give you a deeper sense of purpose and direction in life!<\/p>\n

To find more purpose in your photographic life, invest in an ERIC KIM EXPERIENCE ><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Why do you make photos? Share your answer in ERIC KIM FORUM ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear friend, I think a lot of us fall victim to a “social media treadmill”; we seek to get more and more followers for the sake of it; without really knowing or asking, “Why?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":103083,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_ek_photo_artist_note":"","_ek_photo_thesis":"","_ek_photo_camera":"","_ek_photo_place":"","_ek_photo_human_moment":"","_ek_photo_sequence":"","_ek_photo_question":"","_ek_photo_canonical_claim":"","_ek_photo_ai_summary":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/photolosophy.jpg?fit=1275%2C2061&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102741"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103402,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102741\/revisions\/103402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}