I started a ghost Instagram account so I could contact a guy about a job going that he might be interested in. What is good is that Flickr is so much better than social platforms and I doubt I will get as absorbed in socials. A couple of younger graffiti artists contacted me on Flickr recently and were very complimentary about my work which was nice. I replied back to their questions and what I do to get my work where it is. The problem with Instagram is it is very showy and slick. Slick isn’t my style and I am going to keep investing my time into other platforms where I see more interesting work. The work on Flickr is miles ahead of social platforms, but some people don’t like the way Flickr is community-focused and expects a sense of belonging through financial support and following community guidelines. 

I would rather pay for a service and support the community guidelines than let Flickr sell my personal information and profile me for advertising revenue. Yet some of my friends are happy I am contactable on socials as they aren’t invested in an art practice but see it as a purely social activity. I see it differently, I haven’t put any private information on my socials although the platform already knows who I am from past activity. That mainly means I get suggestions for contacts but I only want to follow a couple of friends I spend time with. If it all gets out of hand I will just delete it and start again after a break. I am not too concerned and the friends who have followed me on Flickr and don’t like Flickr for all of its rules and regulations can revel on the socials. Although I don’t plan on doing socials like I used to do it before. 

It is mainly just a place for close friends and some photos I find interesting, I don’t want to see photos there because the quality is average. I don’t think following people on a phone is worthwhile when I can see amazing work on Flickr. Also, I found a couple of groups that are very active with work from all over the world.