So much for authenticity.

I don't have an Instagram because I don't have a Smartphone..I can only follow and comment and like

now I think..maybe it's for the best. too much..idiocracy in making. closes up on you.

I read, on the other hand, that the house of Sera Hersham-Loftus, for instance, is used for photoshoots by fashion magazines etc. That's different though..she lives there indeed, and it's just too her to become somebody else's for real. She's also very very talented. she's more talented than she even realizes if one can say so..

So they use this house of hers for very high end fashion shoots sometimes, It's very..unlike other houses. It's a weird combo of beauty and decay. Like she sees into life and death and can bring together both concepts.

Here though..I'm sorry..it's what I said in the beginning.

It doesn't matter how many times the founder of that enterprise uses words like "feelings" and "moments".

Either the story is good, or it's just an erzatz.

One either lives, or he writes.(c)

It's damn hard to do both, and do both well.

Here I see no real living and no real writing either

Why to read the story..

(also known as fall)

There's a neat MCM house a couple blocks from us that is rented out for filming commercials and print ads on a regular basis. The owners stay out of the areas that are used for filming on the days it's being used. Often the furnishings are changed out completely. It's my understanding that the owners listed the house with 'talent' (?) agent of some sort. Works for them!

i think this is a fun idea. The only drawback is if they have mutual followers. Oh, there's that pink sofa again.

social influencer ... is that the name of the first lemming that jumps off the cliff !

chispa, there's big money for popular social influencers. A six year old boy makes millions a year reviewing toys on you tube.

A list of highest paid influencers

My, oh my, how things change.

I am somewhat surprised to see that the influencers are not using their own lives to peddle influence, but rather making up stories no differently from the Mad men of yore creating Betty Crocker out of the blue.

In my neck of the woods Williams-Sonoma, et al are always on the prowl for locations to shoot their catalogues. They pay home owners handsomely, I am told. They totally empty out the rooms they use, refilling them with their own merchandise and props. That seems very different from the IG situation where there is a person starring in the story, implying to my mind that the pictures they share represent their lives.

At any rate there are some IG I really like and I am always amazed at how linked some of the people are on the various feeds.

Here are three of my favorites individual IGs. I don't think any of these women is an influencer. None appear to be selling anything.

This one is an American woman, married to an Englishman, living in Zurich.

https://www.instagram.com/elizabethdemontfortwalker/?hl=en

This is a French woman who shows us her life in Paris and the countryside, around Limoges.

https://www.instagram.com/fehrenbachsophie/?hl=en

This is an American woman, Maura Endres, in New Jersey. I learned about her from the L Bern blog.

https://www.instagram.com/m.o.endres/?hl=en

I'm not sure I understand instagram. It just seems like a way to show (off) your vacation photos to a bigger audience.

I'm a pretty good photographer ... maybe I'll start an instagram account for my dogs!

I totally agree with you about IG personally seeming like a giant brag-fest, but that is all social media that focuses on connecting people through images and updates. I have a friend who broadcasts what she eats for breakfast and every restaurant meal and whether or not her daughters got a good grade, won a ribbon, every detail of some aspects of her life. My friend is not a narcissist, she is not a braggart, but maybe she's lonely? IDK, but I really don't get the sharing bit about any social media platform. Maybe if I had some genius photographic or artistic talent it would be good for marketing, but I have no such talent ;-)

Each of us keeps a private IG account that we only share with our immediate family members, which I like a lot since all my boys are away at school now and DH travels a lot for work these days- but it is just for the six of us.

Rita, these Intsagrams you've posted, they're wonderful. I spent a lot of time yesterday looking.

(I knew just the last one I think)

and it's different. it's different in a way that one can write a diary, keep a journal (in all forms..visual is also a form of a journal), and can decide to get theirs published or his family will, and they'll get money for it I suppose

but there's an authentic passion ..something to drives you to write or to photograph or..in the first place

and here, the "something" is the money. Maybe a desire to be recognized.Order of things is different

and yes, of course money drives many things..many great novels were written because such was a person's job.. to write..so, that is your job, and you get money for it

and you very often do want to be recognized

but they still were authentic. Need in money pushed them to appear..but money wasn't that elusive "something"

here, nothing is authentic. whatever..there are lots of things that are fake. But they (hopefully) don't put a mask on and say "we're so authentic".

There's some absence of a good taste here..

I'm sorry for not being able to convey my thoughs, I was hoping I'd come up with something short and clear. Maybe I'm not there yet. Maybe I'd become smarter later:)

I am so glad you liked those IGs, april. To me there is a big difference between a personal IG that shares snapshots of your "wonderful life" filled with all your #blessings for the consumption of those who know you and the IGs of folks like Elizabeth de Montfort or Maura Endres who share pictures of their surroundings, which obviously are quite fabulous, but it's more like looking at a magazine than having a friend brag. There are some very good story tellers out there.

In college one of my professors talked about the importance of being able to communicate with images. She was an older art historian and it was the mid 80s. I wonder if our current era's use of images has surprised even her- because for me- the level at which we have become visual is stunning.

And yes, it is very much like keeping a diary. I remember being fascinated with Carly Simon's daily Polaroid diary.