The Internet has made it much easier to share images online via a wide range of social media platforms and systems. What you choose depends on your goals and ideas. For most people, it is about getting “internet famous” or getting likes/hearts/favourites/PlusOnes and so on. If that’s what you want, I suggest you experiment with Facebook and Instagram. They are the best places to share at the moment.
Why you shouldn’t share online
However, I want to suggest that seeking that measure of success is selling yourself short. By seeking this short term and temporary measure of success you aren’t investing in yourself. Furthermore, this form of motivation can be destructive for long term success. It’s becoming more well-known that intrinsic motivation (the reward gained from doing the activity) not extrinsic motivation (the reward from the results of the activity such as like’s, money or fame) is more powerful and effective. In a study, two groups of kids were asked to draw(actually three but I’m simplifying). One group was given sweets at the end of the time. The next day they left out pens and paper so the kids could draw, the majority of the group who weren’t rewarded decided to draw. However, the group who were told they would be rewarded for drawing spent 50% less time drawing than the group who weren’t rewarded.
This can happen with the reward of social media metrics. When people like a picture, it feels good, you get a dopamine hit. But if that stops (and I guarantee it will happen on a photo you think is really good) you lose that hit, it remove a lot of motivation to shoot.
A better form of sharing
A much better goal to seeking likes and stars is to seek people to give you constructive feedback and informed opinions to help you grow, especially as a beginner.
I say this because I guarantee that your first photos will SUCK. If you are an experienced photographer they will probably suck less but they’ll still suck. The truth of the matter is that there are many street photography groups out there on Facebook and other networks which are full of people who suck, giving likes to the least suck-y images, hoping to improve. The bigger the group, the truer this is.
A much better idea is to find a small group who will give you good feedback (that might be hard to swallow) on your images and push you on (and you can feed into as well). If you do that, then you will learn much more and advance much quicker.
We’re looking to do something just like that at Streettogs/ Little groups with a few newbie and more experienced photographers giving advice, feedback and critics to each other. If you’re interested in that, head over to Facebook.com/streettogs
But seeing as you are going to share your images online anyway, go on Instagram and use the hashtag streettogs and #streetphotography
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