Relationship with Social Media: Create Generously

The “generous act” of creating something.

From the moment I’ve picked up my camera, 11 years ago, I’ve created generously. Year after year I’ve stood in awe that people would reciprocate that generosity back to me by hiring me to create for them. Mind blowing really.

There was a season that I grew really frustrated with social media. It started to feel like a relationship that I invested in way more than what I was receiving in return ya know. Silly to put it this way. But it’s the only way I could describe it. It’s easy to assume that those of us on the creative end simply post a photo, write something, and wala everything is perfect for us. But it isn’t so. Social media is actually quite hard!

Let me put this into perspective. So often, those who are not photographers say something along these lines, “Oh man, social media must be so easy for you, you are a photographer, I mean…taking photos is what you do! So you have like a million photos you can post!” So here’s my perspective-YOU’RE RIGHT, we do! Finding the “right photo” is like finding a needle in a haystack! We have to search for hours through collections. We stress about which one of our 1,000 photos from a wedding is the right ONE to post. The ONE that will tell a story that 1000 photos tell. Lol. It truly isn’t as easy as it is perceived. [sorry for that side tangent rant].

I had to add my side rant for emphases of the work and frustration I’d built up in this relationship between Instagram and I. After feeling like this was a one sided relationship. I, for the first time, started to detour from my core. I started to look to the #’s to place a value on the worth that I was producing. For the first time I was waiting for the generosity to be reciprocated, and when it wasn’t, I grew frustrated. I lost sight of creating GENEROUSLY.

Creating with generosity means that you’re not expecting anything to come back to you in return. Creating generously means that no one owes you a single like, comment, or share! No one. Creating generously means that you gladly and cheerfully put something out there that you are extremely proud of and the moment you put it out there, it becomes a gift to the world.

Tip: If you're struggling with this relationship with instagram [social media platforms].  Post your photo and turn off instagram for a few hours until your mind is no longer wondering who many people reciprocated the generosity you gave by sharing what you created.  

My fellow creators…I urge you, as I urged myself…CREATE GENEROUSLY!