For the past 30 days, I have posted some form of digital art photography (mostly double exposures and cinemagraphs) on my FlowerFolio Instagram. As I said there, wow. I can’t believe we made it to day 30 – 30 days of creating photo manipulations in Photoshop. This was an exercise, not only in flexing my creativity muscle more than usual, but also a way for me to engage more with the community here on Instagram, a platform that has troubled me for a very long time, and made me focus more on my blog. Since returning to Melbourne though, I have been less involved in personal photography projects, as I’d been shooting so much while overseas. So a creativity challenge seemed like a good way to get back into it. I think I’ll continue creating something new at least once a week – so look out for that. My main takeaway from this past month? That it’s just a post. It’s really very simple to post once a day. It becomes habit. And I need to think about it less. To share is to gain. So, to those of you in the same boat, wondering if the algorithms and the commercialisation are worth it – art is art is art is art.
I wanted to add something else though. More and more people are taking “social media breaks”. I get it. I deleted every social media app (Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Tumblr, Pinterest; plus LinkedIn; excluding Instagram) from my phone for the past month. Obviously, I still use these platforms on my laptop or mobile browser; it’s inescapable when you run pages or accounts. But, actually, this was less about not being online and being more present, and more about needing to take a break from always being at everyone else’s beck and call, because of my general role as a social media manager. Actually, what’s even more important to consider is HOW we consume social media content. Do we just simply, mindlessly, endlessly scroll? Or do we engage in thoughtful conversation? It’s why I do a clean-up of who I follow every so often. Not because I see everyone producing the same, or very suspiciously similar, content. But because I want to engage in deep thinking. To use social media in a meaningful and significant way. When I teach other people how to use social media for marketing, the first thing I talk about is, apart from storytelling, about the objective of creating community. Because that’s actually the reason social media began at all – it was about connections. So, let’s think about social media differently. I use this blog as a platform for storytelling and writing, but we have the ability to use Instagram in that way too. To be thoughtful and intentional. To slow down. Only then can creativity shine through.
Bisous, Nat 🥀♥️