Instagram Doesn’t Get the Freelance Life At All
We’re being represented… oddly.
Like a lot of freelancers, I make use of social media for a number of reasons:
- Network with other freelancers
- Showcase work to potential clients
- Pick up tips on improving my freelance mojo
- Learn of freelance opportunities
- Maybe shoot the breeze a bit with like-minded folk
For the most part, it’s a positive experience. I’ve picked up new clients. Learned some things. Gotten to know some people. Hey, we freelancers tend to live a solitary existence. Connecting with other people is a treasure — even if it’s just online.
But there is one area of social media where there is an issue that needs addressing.
I’m talking about Instagram.
What the heck is going on with Instagram?
Take a look at the picture above the header. Both are screenshots fro my Instagram app. On the left are the images that come up for #freelancelife, and on the right are pictures for the simpler hashtag #freelance.
What do you notice?
It’s, like, 80% attractive young women who are doing anything but writing or engaging in any kind of freelance venture I can see. They have great posture and healthy-looking skin. None look like they’re a day over 30. There are a couple of images of these young women on laptops, but one is sitting in direct sunlight and wearing sunglasses.
I don’t think she’s getting much done.
Most images look like they were taken outdoors. I see one person with a coffee cup.
One.
Even then, it looks painfully staged.
Where are the dozens of half-filled cups of cold coffee littering every exposed work surface? Where are the poorly-designed non-ergonomic workspaces? Where is the annoyed spouse with their arms folded scowling in the background because you haven’t left the house in three months? The yelling kids? The overflowing waste-basket?
Granted, it’s 2020, and this would be a rarer sighting now, but I half-expected to see at least one ashtray crowded with cigarette butts.
Or, at a bare minimum, we should see clumps of hair that were ripped out in frustration because that journal layout didn’t paginate properly.
That’s what freelance life looks like.
And no, I’m not speaking only for myself. I’ve seen how some of my colleagues work. It’s a wonder world governments haven’t stepped in to do something about it.
What I’m getting at is that there is a big disconnect between the way some people on Instagram who profess to be freelancers depict the “lifestyle” and what said lifestyle actually looks like.
A conspiracy of influencers?
I’ve only been on Instagram for about a year, but I’ve been freelancing for over 20 years now. I’m a bit late to the social media party when it comes to promoting my freelance writing career.
To give you an idea of what my Instagram feed is like, check this out:
No models. Heck, only one shot was taken outside, which I made with a meme generator. Okay, so maybe my feed doesn’t match up with the hellscape above that I painted the freelance lifestyle as, but remember… I’ve been at this for a while. I’ve filed down the rougher edges over the years. I used to be a lot worse.
The real point is that the Instagram feed of a working freelancer (me) seems very different from what freelance hashtags are trending on Instagram.
Now, why is that?
I suspect — suspect — it’s a conspiracy.
Consider this. A cabal of freelancers feels that there is only so much work to go around. To keep their Starbucks funds safe, they conspire to post pictures of beautiful, jet-setting, glamorous lifestyles. This suggests that “you, too, can live the carefree life of a freelancer!”
People are intrigued. They quit their 9-to-5s, embark on a freelance career, and *record screech* discover that the truth is quite different. Freelance work can be a lot of work. There’s hustling to be done. There’s endless pitching. There are feasts and famine. Uncertainty. There’s paperwork. Most freelancers starting out not only fail to make a living wage, they don’t even make a poverty-level wage.
Before you know it, the “competition” is back to Best Buy or some cubicle farm.
We know that freelancing is not necessarily a bad career decision. Personally, it was the best one I’ve ever made. But it took some time to get to where I am. I consider myself somewhat successful by most measures. But I go on vacation maybe once a year, and it’s not to anyplace exotic. It’s more like… visiting Sesame Place in Pennsylvania.
Whoo.
As a general rule, freelancers don’t go anyplace where the WiFi will be spotty, so yachting in the Caribbean is unlikely.
Is the depiction of freelance life on Instagram a purposeful attempt to con potential freelancers?
I hope not.
More likely, many people on Instagram often present more positive depictions of their life than is real. Not all, but many.
So these ones posting sunny, happy, carefree freelancer lifestyles in Instagram posts are perhaps… overcompensating? Grossly overcompensating?
Good lord. What must their real lives actually be like?
The takeaway
Don’t believe everything you see on Instagram — at least not at face value. The real story is often more interesting, but you have to be willing to dig for it. The atypical depictions of freelance life on Instagram aren’t the issue.
That’s just Instagram being Instagram.
The real issue may be that if you’re just embarking on a freelance career, you may want to recalibrate your expectations. It’s a good life, but as with anything else of value, it takes dedication, perseverance, faith, patience, and some excellent coffee.
Don’t be disappointed if you aren’t scuba diving off Aruba’s coast during your first year as a freelancer. That will come if you really want it to.
When it does, feel free to post some pictures.
But don’t hashtag us.
#Thanks.
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