8 palms, some clouds, and a big blue sky. . I’ve been thinking about numbers lately. There are so many “experts” out there promoting online courses on how to boost your numbers of followers on social media. A lot of them seem to teach a formula you can easily follow, but when you follow this recipe, your feed ends up looking like everyone else’s. Where’s the authenticity in that? . I also noticed (without adhering to any formulas, but always experimenting to find what feels right for me) the numbers of “like” I get, often equal to those accounts with 5x the followers I have. What does this mean? Do most people become a follower who don’t care about the posts from the people they follow? So what’s the point in having a high number of followers? . I’ve also recently been a target of one of those booster marketers. They boosted one of my post so that it got triple the usual numbers of “like” I get. They offered to do it for me on a regular basis for $9/week. What? First of all, I’m not trying to impress anyone with my numbers. Secondly, if I want to boost by paying, I can do it myself! . In my mind, the true magical people I admire didn’t get where they are by playing this game. These folks truly are charismatic & have something valuable to offer in a genuine way. How they got there is often a mystery to themselves. So, there. . I’m one of those people who only follow accounts because they truly inspire me, or they are friends I sincerely want to stay in touch with. Sometimes I follow a certain account only to “study” what they’re doing (I’m an obsessed researcher, after all) but then I would unfollow once I’ve got it figured out...much like how I read a book... I stop once I get the point. I don’t need much elaboration. . This whole number game just doesn’t impress me at all. I like working with numbers for practical things like bookkeeping and budgeting, or fun games like Sudoku. But for Instagram, not so much. . #gamepeopleplay #palmtreelove #southerncalifornia #socalweather #talltrees #bigblue #bigbluesky #cloudscapes #sunnyweather #subtropical #losangeles_la #ihavethisthingwithtrees #naturetexture (at Santa Monica, California)