I ask myself this question a lot these days: Why is it so difficult to find motivation to get out, and why do I also find it hard to open my laptop to edit photos? What could it all mean? I then moved my thoughts to Instagram and the lack of engagement or movement with my posts. Is this connected to the lack of motivation? Why should it be? I then realized why I enjoyed photography in the first place: the affirmation of people seeing my photos and giving them some love, a positive echo chamber if you will. Of course, this raised another question: Why do I need this positive affirmation? Is it purely ego-driven, or did I use it to gauge evolution? I guess it was a mixture of the two.

I was listening to the Joe Rogan podcast a little while back, and the guy he was interviewing said something very interesting about Instagram and social media in general. It was said that social media uses something called a ‘scarcity loop,’ which is linked back to our ancient ancestors and is highly addictive. You see, our hunter-gatherer ancestors would go days or weeks without food, not without wanting to try and search. And then a miracle: the hunter-gatherer finds booty—a dead animal or fruits. The dopamine hit of finding the food was truly intoxicating and acted as a primer or motivation to continue looking for food. This mechanism has now been algorithmically built into not only all social media platforms, dating apps, lottery tickets, slot machines, fruit machines, you name it—it’s been developed, integrated, and now hijacked our hunter-gatherer hardware. What makes this pull so strong? That dopamine hit is wired straight into our survival instincts.

We all post our photos or pieces of art and see them get minimal traction on Instagram. Then one day, we post, and it hits good. It’s on the hashtags and everything; I feel alive! Yay, I’ve picked up 10 extra followers. Everything is good in the world. The next day, you post a photo you know is good, your followers lap it up, but it goes nowhere near the hashtags; your reach has been limited for some reason. You try again the next day; nothing again. It goes on for months—no engagement, no nothing. Three months go by, and one of your posts hits good again; dopamine strikes, and you’ve successfully been breadcrumb-ed. I will post more photos that are similar to try and recreate that feeling and wait another three months to have a post hit those hashtags. This is the scarcity loop.

In typing this, I have come to the realization that Instagram is a slot machine; we continue to pour content into our accounts hoping that at some point we get onto the jackpot section, aka the hashtags. Every now and again, you take your turn on the hashtags and a chance at that jackpot.

Recently, two fellow Instagram-using street photographers I’m friends with have decided to take alternative action. One deactivated his account altogether, and another one destroyed his old account and started a new one in the hope Instagram will give him a second chance. I found this particularly sad because Instagram is where our community is, and now that community is starting to die algorithmically.

Anyway, away from Instagram, I’m struggling with photography as my creative outlet. Yes, I enjoy getting out on the street, walking miles, but the end process of looking at the pics and actually editing them is turning into a bit of a chore. So many questions. Is it street photography I’m tired of, or photography in general?

I’m thinking of starting a new project; I’d like to photograph the North Norfolk coast and the towns along it. I will start in springtime and work through the summer; I think I’ll make a book of it too. I’m hoping this may reinvigorate the photographic experience for me. Let's see.

Right, I recently was working at Frankie and Benny's in the O2 and Wembley. This gave me a great chance to get into the city on two separate times for a few hours. There weren’t many people around, and I worked with what I had. I tried a few new things, like slowing down the shutter speed, etc. I’ve included most of the photos I got over those few nights.

I’ll also link in the video from the Joe Rogan experience about the Scarcity loop for your reference.

I’m going to make an effort to blog once a week; once I form this habit, I may move to two or three a week—let's see how this goes.