#Microblog Monday 307: People or Places
Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.
*******
Erin McKeown wrote in her latest newsletter about an experiment she did with Instagram. She started only posting images where she was in the photo. So sunset photos, but only if the sunset was behind her. River photos, but only if she was by the river.
She writes: “Posts with my face in them are seen by an average of 5 times more people than posts without my face in them.” She explains how this impacts what she wants to say, especially her anti-racist work. And I’m sure it’s true for the Instagram algorithm—this isn’t the first time I’ve heard this fact. But I don’t follow people on Instagram. I mostly only follow places. And I only like/bookmark images that do not have people in them. (With the exception of nieces and nephews because they’re adorable.)
It’s a photo site, so it’s an interesting question: What type of photos interest us? Clearly, in my feed, it’s only places I’ve been and places I want to go. What do you look at in your feed?
*******
Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.
7 comments
Hope you and your family are safe and well. I’m not a good one to ask. I try to avoid most social media except when necessary for business. I find it’s way too cluttered and noisy. If anything, I would rather see photos of sunsets etc. I feel like everybody and their selfies is way more about them posting than what we think when we see them.
I follow a variety of people/sites on my Instagram, so it’s a mixture of people (both personal friends/family & celebrities/influencers), places & things/products. Since Older Nephew got his miniature dachshund, I’ve started following some doxie sites (lol). And I’ve been following a lot of childless/free sites & bloggers/influencers lately. I like to see photos of people (that I know) — but there are a few (one of dh’s cousins’ daughters in Italy comes to mind!) who follow Erin McKeown’s example. This kid is only 13 or 14, but she’s in EVERY PHOTO. She went with her parents & aunts to Rome, and there are fabulous photos of all these statues & cathedrals and works of art… and the kid is posing, smiling, in front of EVERY ONE OF THEM. I find endless selfies boring to look at as well.
Personally, I’m not worried about how many clicks & likes I get, so I post whatever I want, which is a variety of people/places/things too.
I follow photographers I like, or users that post photo or drawing challenges, illustratiors i like, family, and friends rom the urban sketchers community (I learn a lot from seeing different approaches to drawing an urban scene).
Come to think of it, my photographer friends seldom post photos with them in it (me neither, unless it is a drawn self portrait), they post mainly photos of places, street photograph, and so on.
I don’t go much for the selfie thing…
Well, considering that my tagline on Instagram is “More worldies than selfies,” you can guess where I stand. My face is seen in maybe 1 of every 15-20 posts? I’d prefer to see how people see the world than how they see themselves. That said, I do wonder if I stop more at faces than at scenery.
I do like flowers, oddities, sunsets, seeing something unexpected.
I’m like you. I follow some people I personally know, but mostly I follow travel sites (eg safari sites) or photographers who do not show themselves in the feeds. In fact, I followed a travel blogger once, but her stupid big head was always in the way of the interesting site/sight behind her, and I promptly unfollowed her. That’s how I feel about selfies! So my view is the exact opposite of the average Instagram user (something that does not surprise me, and gives me some pride), and would promptly unfollow Erin McKeown (if I had been following her) if she started inserting selfies in front of sunsets!
My Instagram feeds (both No Kidding and travellingMali accounts) have no photos of me in them. I put photos of myself up on Fbk only very rarely. And have put up one (or maybe two) of myself on a blog. I really detest the self-obsessed nature of selfies.
I follow photographers and artists who post their work mainly, but I have a separate profile for family where I share personal photos. When I noticed a significant drop in my views for my artsy profile, I changed my profile pic from an abstract to a face. Suddenly, my numbers went up again. Interesting.
It’s a big mixture of what tickles my fancy and my current mood of what I like. An entire account of selfies…? Boring!!!
Instagram is my place to play and post whatever pictures I want. Sure it is nice to get likes, but I don’t post things in order to get them. I have 3-4 selfies on my account this year, and most of those are only half of my face because I’m trying to show my new hair color. (I’ve had a few others in my stories, but those only last 24 hours.) I don’t post my kids on there, unless I blur their face (2 times ever) or you can’t see their face or they are so far off, that you can’t see them.
I love following my hometown photographers, nature photographers, mending/stitching, local people, influencers and sometimes people I know. But I only follow people I want because I want to, not because they follow me. 😀 As I said, It’s my space!