The Great Unfollowing

Latest works I completed this week. Feeling that "blue"- not to be confused with the blues.

My new morning routine while I sip coffee and scroll online is to clean up my Instagram. In particular-my art account @galleryrodriguez

Years ago as an experiment I hired one of those companies to organically grow your social media account. Basically they compliment a crapload of accounts all day and follow random people (although its supposed to be targeted to your specifications i.e. only art, design, galleries,etc) and as a result you get followed back. I was just curious how these entities work and ended the experiment after a few days.

There was tons of nonsense in my feed- bad erotic photography, instagram "models" and I use that word super loosely and sarcastically, basic moms in Russia, fitness coaches, profiles with one photo, etc. So as a result my following count WAY EXCEEDS the followers and if you know anything about the stupid algorithm-Instagram doesnt like it and will hide your posts. (Thanks Zuckerbish)

I should preface all this by saying I REALLY DO NOT CARE about Instagram and in fact I dislike it immensely since Facebook took it over. However- as a business I still need to get my business and art seen and connected so that means people actually need to be seeing my posts. So...the great unfollowing begins.

All these random profiles that do not pertain to my business, don't interact with me, are not even real or active...unfollowed! And it feels good to sweep my feed and see only art, artists I like, nature photography that is amazing and yes even just normal people if they have some authentic life to share.

Like one guy just posts humble photos of himself and his life with his cat and his yard and food- that would be grounds for deletion-but I can relate to his life. Theres no posturing, slick wannabe videos, filters or trying to be something he isn't. Its very real and authentic and I appreciate that.

I want to connect with what Im seeing and relate to it as a human. That's where Im at in life. I want real and genuine.

At first I felt bad about unfollowing some of these people but in reality they were not even following me back lol! So piu piu piu-gone! It feels good to shake the numbers down.

But don't spend too long on Instagram doing this because real life is way more important. Today is payroll work and painting time in the studio.

Live authenticly- the world really needs that right now.

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