Back in 2018, I was on fire for most of the year as I consistently posted my food photos, largely consisting of smoked meat, on Instagram. Then, as I was finishing my bachelor’s degree, life got busy. November 2018, my mother had a stroke. It wasn’t long after that I took a half-year hiatus. 2019 has been — to be unabashedly transparent — an absolute struggle. My aunt (my mother’s sister, who is like a second mother to me) experienced two extreme health events this year (a heart attack in March and, more recently, diverticulosis that led to an infection that caused sepsis). I took a complete break from all social media to assist in mitigating the ramifications of those tragic health events and attempt to take care of myself in the process.

In returning and leaving again (as it pertains to Instagram), I took notice of why I ever loved posting in the first place: the love of delicious grub and the desire to share it and the want to build genuine connections/friendships with other people who have similar interests. It is a community. The barbecue community.

After the first six months away, I was disheartened to find that many of my former followers had unfollowed me. I was perturbed and felt taken back, because while I had not warned any followers of a break from the ‘gram, I had posted about my mother having a stroke, so I was a little disheartened from losing many, but I can’t blame them for unfollowing, because as far as what they knew, I could have been done with Instagram forever, and they may have just wanted to prune who they are following when it comes to active vs. inactive accounts. Nonetheless, I’m not bitter about it.

I wrote in a post back over the summer about how there is a lot of selfishness embedded in the Instagram barbecue community. Many people will do whatever it takes in order to grow their follower count and expand their page. I appreciate those who do so organically, because that is what I’m trying to do; it is a slow grind, but more worthwhile, because you are doing it through the work of creating content and building relationships along the way vs. the snakes who buy followers and take shortcuts.

I can’t help but feel jaded at times when I see bogus accounts or whenever I receive a follow from a ‘big’ account that I know will unfollow a few days or a week later.

If you ever decide to delve deep into the cooking community on Instagram, I plead for you to do it for the right reasons. Sure, I think many people’s goals (I would be a sheep to say this isn’t mine) is to make a name for themselves and eventually earn some profit along the way, but taking a shortcut won’t lead to as much, because more people than you know recognize phonies. Yes, “there is a sucker born every minute,” but you can tell a jackass (donkey) from a stallion.

The title of this post is written that way, because creating content and watching your follower count increase is a trap. It can become an addiction. Sometimes you might see a spike because one post nets you a high multitude of followers, but then a few posts later you might experience a plateau with little growth, and that should never dissuade you, because your content will be found over a period of time as you grow your page. Patience and persistence, my friends.