Quitting social media as a photographer in 2025

Don’t be afraid, JUST DO IT! Trust me, it will be worth it!

I quit social media by deleting Instagram, Facebook and X from my phone, I deleted TikTok way long ago. I was spending quite some time on Instagram, but as a photographer you’d think that that’s good, that I used it to promote my work, WRONG! I was just scrolling mindlessly, basically wasting the time I should’ve used to write this blog way sooner.

Well, why did I do that? I was constantly bombarded by fake news on facebook, masked propaganda (for context I’m from Romania and maybe you heard about our presidential elections from December 2024), AI generated images posted as real, irrelevant reels and stupid road accidents. Yep, my algorithm was f*****. So, one morning, reading something about an airplane that caused snowing after it’s landing because certain conditions were met (long scientific explanation, but very cool), reading the comments I got so angry with the “chemtrails theories” that I just had enough and deletes both Facebook and Instagram.

What changed after that? Well, I spent so much less time on my phone, and actually used it for doing productive things, like reading books, reading news about the stock market, investing and something strange: really connecting with people. Yep, not just liking some stories, actually making conversations with my friends. For actual screen time, it was 50% down from the “social media era”. I actually felt more alive, did more chores with much pleasure, read more, listened to more music, felt less tired, it impacted every aspect of my life.

Photography! If you’re reading this, you might also be a photographer who thinks of quitting social media but you’re afraid of losing some potential clients if you do that. Well, you might be right, but I did not delete my accounts, just the apps on my phone, and I checked my instagram page for new messaged twice a week in case a potential client sent me a message, and not a single client did. I also have a contact by email button on my profile, it’s more professional and also have the advantage that I will get the notification instantly. And for the FOMO, I did not miss anything, it was all perfect, my fear before that wasn’t real.

Before quitting, I was posting mainly stories and during the day I was using my phone or my camera to take random pictures, edit them and post them on story. After that, well, I did exactly the same thing but kept the photos for me, as memories or maybe I will use them some day. I will even leave some there to see how my time was spent.

So, do I recommend doing that yourself? As I said in the first line here, YES! Maybe not just deleting the accounts forever, but you could start by deleting the apps on your phone first, check your messaged once a day on your laptop and if after a few days you did not miss anything important, try checking it once every two days or less. But, do not go on your feed or reels when you check your messaged, wasted time on reels is wasted time on reels wherever you are watching them!