Socials

Socials

Had an email pop up the other day that reminded me my Tumblr Blog was 10 years old! What that ten-year period has seen!! A brief look at it suggests that I haven’t posted anything to Tumblr for the last few years as this blog has replaced that one and no one wants the cringe moments form ten years replaying like an embarrassing photograph, do they.

That got me thinking about my subject for this week’s musing which is on social media in general. 

Tricky fork in the road here as the thorny subject of socials rears its head in both my old and new practices, in particular social media and teaching is an interesting topic which I may talk about further here or in my research blog. 

In the spirit of honesty that this blog was setup for, I’ll admit I don’t have as much of a handle on social media as I once did, I see this for the following reasons I’ve decreased my time spent on platforms mainly in the production and promotion of them, I’d also changed social media handles that had an unfortunate effect of losing followers and engagement, also I see a big change by the platforms themselves with algorithm changes and directions.  

The phrase ‘money talks’ seems most relevant here as most engagement now seems to be cash driven, like I can buy interactions and I can buy likes for an image and I can buy promotions, judging by the amount of photographers promoting to me this cannot be very successful in punch per pound terms. 

I came off Facebook post Brexit, pre Covid for all the grief it was causing me with silly arguments, crackpot ideas being shared and downright horridness that changed my experiences of it. I rely on Instagram and Twitter now ( Twitter when I can, as some of the stuff on there is sometimes too much to take). I’ve recently been thinking about this, when sharing questions (and image) posts, I admittedly don’t get the same engagement for them as I did with Facebook, so I may have to return for that reason. 

On the day I was writing this blog, comes news of Elon Musk’s attempt to buy twitter which would ironically see the parameters of Twitter change and push me back towards setting up a new Facebook site! What a strange twist today had brought. I was going to post something on Twitter but I’m not sure what to do, as I watch the comments about twitter becoming an unsafe space for some users, I’m not sure I want to support that. How very typically NathanPhoto when I decide to do something then the fates metaphorical stick in the wheel happens. 

Anyway. 

Here’s a little heads up about the next blog as it’s getting closer to the end of month when I share this month’s word image and talk about that a bit more, reminder that the word is routine, if you’d like to take part. Routine. 

Speaking of images as I’ve only just returned from a Covid illness and that most of April saw my research practice take creative control, this week’s image has been a little harder to come by but as a blog needs an image like certain billionaires need the oxygen of publicity then here’s we go. 

A brown brick wall with a window relief bricked up with a small splat of red spray paint that has run down the wall.

Identifying the NathanPhoto image is sometime difficult, the first choice for an image really fitted more closely to my research practice so it’s gone there, this image tho is much more NP. It’s got a few layers representative of how I feel, something that people probably walk past daily, a nothingness about it, a lack of special about it perhaps. Yet I think it has a story, a why, a what and a when, which opens itself up to an examination and thought (possibly) This was one of the first images made when I finished quarantine and went for my first walk in weeks and I felt its symbolism in some way. 

Enjoy. 

Thank you for reading.