Figuring out what works in 2025 and beyond..
Hello everyone, welcome to my first official Substack post (my blog & Substack will be fusing together as one). While it might be considered very retro to ‘blog’ (which this feels a little like), there have been some changes to social media in the last few years that have made me rethink it’s role in my life.
Previously, I had mostly promoted my work on Instagram, Twitter and doing some event organizing on Facebook. This all worked well enough for many years. But lately I’ve been getting the feeling that social media is not the same place that I optimistically dove into back in the early 2000’s.
I’m sure many of you have noticed this too. Instagram used to be a place where you could view some really beautiful photography and share some of your own with friends & followers. This isn’t really the case anymore, it’s become a bombardment of re-shared Tik-Tok’s, blooper reels, soft-core, people doing gross stuff with food, overly clever product placements, etc, etc. Twitter is well.. a look inside the mind of a very disturbed billionaire. Facebook is a poor amalgamation of them both and they’re all trying to shove AI down our collective throats (whether we like it or not).
I really noticed my posting fall off in the last year, even though I’ve been working on some exciting projects that I’ve really wanted to share. I just wasn’t excited about the platforms as a place anymore.
I don’t think social media is “dead” (far from it), it’s still going to play a major role in how people communicate (and it can still be fun). But I think for me personally, it’s time for a change and this is what I came up with.
I think there’s a big movement towards more private social media groups inside of Signal, Discord or even extended text threads with friends. I think this is a exciting development on many levels. The communities I’m part of in these alternatives are ad free, bot free, distraction free and because of this, are more focused on the conversation at hand. I’m also hopeful about BlueSky, although I think it’s too early to tell if they’ll maintain their independence long term.
I plan to write more about this topic in the future and share more of my work.. but for the time being, you can still find me on Instagram sharing my cinematography and color work (@josephoverbey). I’m also going to focus more on making my website an interesting place to visit (www.josephoverbey.com).
I’m in the process of abandoning Twitter and Facebook, I don’t think there’s much of a future there for visual artists or any type of critical thinking that goes against the narrative of American social conformity.
I’ve also believed for a very long time that creators, writers, people making stuff contribute to our culture and need to make a living. While our government puts pretty much zero value on culture and corporations believe anything online belongs to them. Please consider diverting something from monopolist subscription companies (Amazon, Netflix, etc.) and supporting your neighbors in the real world. Consider clicking the Substack link below, any subscription or contribution there is appreciated (and will most likely be spent on eggs or film). All the typos are my own, gracefully human and AI free.
