I (like many others) spend far too much time on social media. I lose hours of my day on it, often without even realizing. I am never without my smartphone. I instantly get any notifications (even if I don’t read them right away) and I’m online all the time.
It wasn’t always this way. Just in the last few years. I didn’t even have a smart phone until 3 years ago, and even then, I wasn’t so attached to it. But now it’s a part of my everyday life, and it feels wrong not to have it.
Being so attached to social media also means that I am constantly photography, everywhere. And that isn’t a bad thing. But it does affect my work. It affects the ideas I have, even if I don’t realize. It can discourage me. It can get me excited. It can deter me from doing certain projects or not.
So, I decided to take on an experiment for myself. I decided that starting September 1st, 2014 I’m going to be taking away an entire year from social media. I’m going to log out of facebook, deviantart, tumblr, flickr, 500px, instagram and not turn them on for an entire year. The only time I will spend on the internet will be to update this blog and check my email.
It’s going to be a great adventure, to see where I can go with my photography without so much outside influence, just running on my own steam. Not only that, but relearning how to live without social media will mean more time to discover or rediscover things that I love to do, that I may not be doing anymore. I’m excited for it.
Luckily, I have people in my life who are going to help me out with this, so you’ll still be able to see my work on Facebook if that’s what you primarily use! The lovely Teri Hofford is going to be running my Facebook page for me and posting my work – I’m just not going to see it!
If you wish to contact me during this time, please email me at xceteraphotography@gmail.com 🙂
That’s all for now, but before I go, here’s an image from my last shoot!
Xcetera Photography 