Good morning, my dear friend, and welcome back for a new article. First of all, I want to thank you, as always, for your support. This blog and this newsletter mean a great deal to me, and knowing that you take the time to read my articles fills me with joy and gratitude.
I’ll keep things fairly short today.
I’ll tell you upfront that this article isn’t strictly about photography — or rather, it’s not about the photography you create, plan, and study to achieve a specific result. It’s about how I present my photography to you.
As I’ve already mentioned before, and in particular in this post from about a month ago, I’ve grown truly tired of social media. The race for likes, the dopamine hits, the way these platforms — at least the major ones — are built to keep us glued to the screen with algorithms that trigger a constant search for the next post that grabs our attention.
Over the past few weeks I’ve started looking for alternative ways to share what I do, without falling back into this unhealthy mechanism and without continuing to “fatten up” the databases of the same old platforms with my data.
First things first: I deleted my Facebook account.
I should have done it years ago.
Then I drastically reduced my presence on Instagram. I haven’t deleted the account yet — but I will — and I’ve already removed the app from my phone. If and when I want to access it, I’ll do so from my PC.
There are some sharing apps I’ll be keeping, though. Vero and Foto. I’m still on the fence about LinkedIn, but I think I’ll be leaving that one soon too.
In the meantime, as I was saying, I’ve rediscovered the pleasure of RSS feeds. So I’ve decided that the photos I used to post on Instagram will from now on also be published on a secondary blog at this address: social.teofranchi.com.
It’s simple: through a service called Micro.blog I create a post exactly as I used to. It then gets automatically published to the blog and to Bluesky and Pixelfed. This way everything is visible both through the classic apps and via an RSS feed. If you’re not interested in the noise of social media but still want to enjoy content in a much more peaceful way, just add the feed — you’ll find the photos directly in your reader.
No likes, no comments, no metrics.
Then of course there’s the main blog — this one you’re reading — also available as a newsletter through Substack. That part isn’t changing, and the content I publish here will continue to be shared across the various apps, including Mastodon.
The underlying choice that led me to this setup comes from a desire to cut out algorithms as much as possible and, where I can, move towards European solutions, which tend to offer better protection for data and privacy.
That said, I’m aware I still have too many platforms to manage. Micro.blog’s automation helps to some extent, but you still have to keep up with interactions — comments, likes, messages… There’s still work to do before I reach a lighter setup, without giving up on the desire to share what I do. The approach I want to follow — and which I find perfectly suited to RSS feeds — is to publish and read without feeling the unspoken obligation to hit like. Comments are always welcome, even if they’re not accessible through feeds, precisely because they’re far more intentional and require a genuine, meaningful interaction.
So, here’s what you can follow and where:
My photos → Vero, Foto, Bluesky, Pixelfed, secondary blog (both as a web page and as an RSS feed)
My articles → Teo’s Talks (on my website, as an RSS feed, and through the Substack newsletter), Mastodon, Bluesky, Vero
I don’t exclude further adjustments down the line.
In the meantime, thank you — whatever “platform” you choose to use.
Take care and talk soon!