Social media, while useful, has gone too far and has overstepped its bounds. Most people only use it to consume content others have created, without creating anything original themselves. I have been free of Facebook and Instagram for quite a while now, and it has been both good and bad. Good because, as an artist, it gives me more time to write words and sing notes and shoot shots. Some of my most exciting songs and photos would likely never have been made had I not deleted those infernal apps off of my phone. Staring at grip-n-grins of dudes catching big trout on Instagram is much more comfortable than getting up early enough to get to the good stream in time to cast a fly at the good fishes.
The only real negative side is isolation and the lack of feedback on whatever I am doing at the moment. Finishing a song isn't the same when you cannot post it on your social media for people to hear. It just sits there as a .mp3 or .wav on my desktop, begging me to put it somewhere. Selectively sending things to specific individuals is weird; I over-think it and end up not getting as much useful feedback because I'm too nervous to even explain what I'm trying to do correctly. I have also found that it seems like most people are usually lying to you, even when you specifically ask them to be honest, further muddying the waters. Maybe this is how things always were, and I am just rusty with this kind of "human interaction" from using social media through my twenties, but staring someone in the eyes and asking them to listen to my band is something I have not had to do in a long time and it takes some getting used to it. Additionally, losing the constant background noise that is news media makes the times I am forced to watch talking head soundbites and clips utter torture, and my heart breaks as I witness the drawn-out death of long format conversations and ideas that take more than one paragraph to flesh out.
I want to share my work and thoughts, but I do not want to force them into someone else's feed. I want to share photos but don't give a fuck about reading comments on them (unless you know more than me and can show me where I can improve, of course). I want to give myself the time to think through an issue before making an opinion, and I want to connect with people who are doing the same. I do not want to share everything.
So I'm starting a blog.
Subjects here will vary from wildlife conservation to photography, audio engineering to free will to fly fishing. Enjoy it or not, let me know or don't. I have to get to school, so that's all I have to say about that.