Unfollowing Hunting Social Media Will Make Hunting Better: Matt Rinella Essay

[Button]

North Myrtle Beach SC was my second home for every one of my 49 years. I get truly sad to see what it has become. I can't even go back anymore. Everyone treats it like a public bathroom - they can't imagine that at one time it was actually a community of people who all knew each other, lived there year-round, and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

I’m sorry for your loss as am I for what’s it’s becoming. My home beach is treated like a feral playground. Sickening.

 

[OMB]

The tag issue has zero to do with social media. It has everything to do with the Information Age. Long gone are the days of sifting through mountains of paper to find harvest statistics for a unit in a particular state or really even making calls to bios. Simple internet searches or hunting sites like Go Hunt make tag applications easier and easier. I’ve never seen a single “influencer” etc telling anyone they need to apply for XYZ units. So that argument really doesn’t hold water for tag allocation.

A simple search on YouTube or Apple Podcasts yields dozens of "How To" tutorials on how to apply and what parts of various states, and where the best public land units are in said states. And it has everything to do with social media, and people trying to profit from it. I'm not going to post links here and hot spot.

 

[Pilarczyk85]

Before social media, and every influencer coast to coast claiming there's a 150" buck behind every tree, I could draw a non-resident bow tag every other year to hunt my own 850 acre farm in Iowa. I get that for as long as I can't move back, I'll have to deal with the system. It sucks.

But I think a lot of people aren't seeing the forest from the trees here: sharing to your instagram following of 700 or sending kill pics to your boys isn't the issue. It's influencers that really don't care about the resource profiting from it to build their follower/like count and monetize their accounts. The Kifaru crew/Aron Snyder totally missed this in their discussion. You have people like Josh Bowmar who make a ton of money off our natural resources that are clearly unethical but nobody in the industry will call out because they have business deals together. This is so wrong and needs to be dealt with.

Matt Rinella might not have it figured out, but good god, there's a ton of people with huge followings that need to be completely disavowed and made so that hunting will never be a way they can make money.

I believe it's the culture that social media is producing is what I meant and I think in a round about way Matt was saying this. That the idea and perception that is pushed by those media outlets give people warped senses on how things actually work. You're absolutely right. A huge portion of these Instagram hunters should be absolved. I'm also sensing a real division of elitism in the hunting community that maybe I never noticed before and was always there or that is growing extensively with the exploitation of different avenues. I see it a lot in bow hunters who take on a "better than you" approach and this is amplified with guys like Cam Hanes and Dudley. Kinda same with the kifaru guys as well. Maybe not Aron specifically but definitely the approach his cronies put off.

 

[Pocoloco]

Social media is toxic and I took it one step past his recommendation and quit it cold Turkey one year ago but I disagree with his arguments on crowding as they are selfish. I am just like the next guy in that I prefer to find solace in the woods but that shouldn’t motivate me to hide my lifestyle to keep others out of the woods. We should support those new to our lifestyle and give them an honest picture good bad and ugly of what it takes to fill the freezer.

 

[*zap*]

How are people influenced by media? Sex and the city? TV show has a scene where one of the actors has a heart attack while riding a peloton bike. Then peloton stock goes down something like 30% right after that...basically many people cannot discern what is real and what is not and certainly they cannot think for themselves...

 

[Rob5589]

A simple search on YouTube or Apple Podcasts yields dozens of "How To" tutorials on how to apply and what parts of various states, and where the best public land units are in said states. And it has everything to do with social media, and people trying to profit from it. I'm not going to post links here and hot spot.

I don't doubt you but, a simple search of any state fish and game website will tell you where the best units are. I'd venture a guess and say GoHunt, HuntinFool, OnX, GE, Eastmans, have done as much or more damage to hunt areas as IG/FB.

 

[Pilarczyk85]

How are people influenced by media? Sex and the city? TV show has a scene where one of the actors has a heart attack while riding a peloton bike. Then peloton stock goes down something like 30% right after that...basically many people cannot discern what is real and what is not and certainly they cannot think for themselves...

Exactly and places like instagram make that even harder for most especially the younger generations who live and die by it. These influencers see this and took a monetary approach to those things. Mix in a little pimping of product placement and viola' you have a bunch of cucks in a contest for like and the monster just keeps feeding itself.

 

[Browtinemt]

Blaming social media for hunting problems is like blaming guns for shootings. Poor stewards create hunting problems. Start letting the companies that fund influencers know who does right by the hunting community and who doesn’t.

Bitch all you want about Newberg, Steve Rinella, Dudley, Hanes, Snyder or Rogan because none of them are infallible. I will continue to listen to their content because I appreciate the fact that they influence respect, knowledge and discipline. I don’t agree with everything they say, but they get hate no matter what they do.

 

[wapitibob]

I don't doubt you but, a simple search of any state fish and game website will tell you where the best units are. I'd venture a guess and say GoHunt, HuntinFool, OnX, GE, Eastmans, have done as much or more damage to hunt areas as IG/FB.

You forgot Rokslide and forums in general.

Good intentions with consequences, pretty much the theme of this thread.

 

[Donjuan]

I don't think we can lump all hunters on social media into one basket. A "huntress" showing off 2 racks? Maybe not good for hunting.
But if someone from the city sees Remi Warren or Cam Hanes and thinks "I want to get in shape, shoot a bow, and eat elk," then I see that as a plus.

If we go down the road of too many hunters and not enough land then we need to consider why a public landowner no longer allows hunting. Bad apples spoil the bunch. Also, what are you doing to improve habitat and gain public access? Many of these spawns of Satan you hate on Instagram are doing that.

 

[Donjuan]

I will also say this:
If you post a trophy pic of you or someone with the gun barrel pointing at yourself you should lose your license for a year.
Jk but seriously

 

[Poser]

The tag issue has zero to do with social media. It has everything to do with the Information Age. Long gone are the days of sifting through mountains of paper to find harvest statistics for a unit in a particular state or really even making calls to bios. Simple internet searches or hunting sites like Go Hunt make tag applications easier and easier. I’ve never seen a single “influencer” etc telling anyone they need to apply for XYZ units. So that argument really doesn’t hold water for tag allocation.

go Hunt pays influencers to promote their brand, thus making tag processes more popular and accessible to more people. That’s how influencing works: the brand provides a influencers with a discount code that they promote to their X amount of followers that they build posting selfie’s and long armed grip n grins. The brand then kickbacks 10% of the 20% off back to the influencer. Liking, following and interacting with influencers drives their bargaining power with brands and makes them desirable. There are also micro-influencers who don’t have huge followings but can be influential to small circles. Since kicking back $s to influencers only pays when a sale is made, it’s a much cheaper form of marketing than dumping money into advertising, paid media etc.

 

[ddd-shooter]

go Hunt pays influencers to promote their brand, thus making tag processes more popular and accessible to more people. That’s how influencing works: the brand provides a influencers with a discount code that they promote to their X amount of followers that they build posting selfie’s and long armed grip n grins. The brand then kickbacks 10% of the 20% off back to the influencer. Liking, following and interacting with influencers drives their bargaining power with brands and makes them desirable. There are also micro-influencers who don’t have huge followings but can be influential to small circles. Since kicking back $s to influencers only pays when a sale is made, it’s a much cheaper form of marketing than dumping money into advertising, paid media etc.

Exactly.
People here are like "blame the companies, not social media" And the whole problem is those companies are the SAME ones paying for social media content.
And guess who wants more consumers in the woods, regardless of their impact? Those same companies who have products to sell!
It's so tangled and hidden and not presented as truth that most people can't see the scheme propping it all up because it's dressed as "WE JUST WANT TO SHOW OUR KILLS"

 

[Jared Bloomgren]

@robby denning appreciate your replies.

I think the concern many of us have is that hunting media is pushing demand higher and higher, taking more from the resource at an accelerated pace, but the resource continues to diminish.

@Ryan Avery @Justin Crossley @Jared Bloomgren what do you think about the article?

How do you feel about a media based relationship to hunting in light of the consistently diminishing resource?

Why do you make hunting media part of your life and career?

I am way late to this and do not follow the stuff very closely but I figured I should chime in since I was tagged. And I will be short with a reply and you may not hear from me on this topic again. I do not purposely follow any “influencers” on social media like many of you do to even touch on many topics.

I have definitely experienced a decline in hunting opportunities due to social media especially with podcasts talking about areas that should be hunted. A couple of the areas I grew up hunting but now it is not worth even going with the attention it got. A certain company did a podcast about this area and it was followed up with others talking about the areas. So yes I have seen the negative impact of social media and podcasts of all ranges. I remember over 20 years ago when writing an article for a magazine was a big deal! And those of us that knew each other through the “hunting industry” was very small. Nowadays everybody is “somebody” and they seem to have something to prove. I wrote my first article in 1992 and I was so excited to do so! That excitement still continues today so I know I am doing what I love.

I do what I do because I love to do it. I was hunting and sharing my success photos with everybody I knew long before social media was even a thing. Take away social media and “sponsors” and the like button and I will still continue to go out into the field to hunt game without any impact on my lifestyle. I do not care who follows me or likes my content. But I am a hero in my children’s eyes! I do enjoy helping other sportsmen and women become more successful in the field. I like to share my knowledge and my success with fellow sportsman and women alike without just giving away my hunting areas.

Some may view that as a negative impact on our hunting. But I can assure you nobody knows the areas that I hunt and I am very careful about posting any photos or talking about where I hunt.

Go ahead and beat me up now!

 

[kwackkillncrew]

Matt is making it sound like just posting the picture is the issue. I think the bigger issue is when people go into great detail on the units/tag number/how to review success statistics. A simple picture is not going to give away much. Although if you hunt certain areas and take pictures the wrong way it is very easy for some one who has hunted that general area to find out where they were hunting. especially if they leave their location services on their phone when they took the picture. Just from looking at some of the black tail pictures on this website i have been able to find out exactly where they were when they took the picture. I would say the youtube videos are making it worse. Also the face book groups where people put up to the minute information has been terrible for alot of the road accessible caribou hunts in ak. There was once a guy who had a very big following on his fishing website up here. It went on for years and gave out lots of knowledge. he eventually had to (shut it down for his own reasons) but i wouldnt be surprised if adfg contacted him and told him that it was time he shut it down. He would say where people are getting into lots of salmon and then next weekend it would be an absolute chit show. There is no doubt that social media has made a huge difference in the amount of pressure certain areas get. I would say most of the people who arent getting money for the contributions are the problem especially on the road accessible caribou hunts. before social media vomit of info people would have to call fish and game to get very broad locations of where they might be or heaven for bid actually talk to people at the sporting good store, actually put in some time and effort. Now all they have to do is scroll through social media while they take a dump.

 

[KHNC]

I havent read all 30 pages, but, one of the things that really pisses me off about "influencers" are how they follow people on IG , then UNFOLLOW them as soon as they get a "follower". Nothing screams "IMA FKN Douchbag" louder to me. I make it a point to not follow any of those fools. I used to, and finally got my IG account whittled down to people im at least a little familiar with.

 

[Poser]

I havent read all 30 pages, but, one of the things that really pisses me off about "influencers" are how they follow people on IG , then UNFOLLOW them as soon as they get a "follower". Nothing screams "IMA FKN Douchbag" louder to me. I make it a point to not follow any of those fools. I used to, and finally got my IG account whittled down to people im at least a little familiar with.

Yeah, I did the same. They want a high follower to following ratio. Used to be capped at the ability to follow no more than 5,000 people but that may have changed on the platform as that strategy seems to have died out significantly.

 

[KHNC]

Yeah, I did the same. They want a high follower to following ratio. Used to be capped at the ability to follow no more than 5,000 people but that may have changed on the platform as that strategy seems to have died out significantly.

If thats the case, i guess it makes sense why they do it. But thats the first time ive heard about it being limited. Otherwise, I didnt know what the benefit to them was to do it.

 

[kfili]

Alternative viewpoint here (but mostly devils advocate as I dont really do much social media). I am still a relatively new hunter (less than 10 years) initially found Cam Hanes and Dudley and Snyder- got into archery and since moved into Trad archery (yes almost directly because of the way snyder described it). If it werent for those resources I would be years behind where I am- and would probably not have much, if any, success. Instead I have been relatively successful every year and that in turns helps me to put more work, time energy and money into it. As I plan my first western trip in the next year or two I expect it will be much of the same- following along people who are willing to put information out there as I dont have the time to put 10 years into finding a decent spot. Im willing to pay to shortcut some of the work to have a higher chance of success. I think there is still a right way to utilize social media where it gives value and entertainment to us who didnt grow up in hunting communities/families and are still figuring out on our own as much as we can. I.e- I learned to tune my bow/arrows, practice shooting am constantly scouting new areas, but when I hear someone this product is good, (or this state/unit) and I can trust them- Id like to take their word instead of buying it and 3 others to find out they all suck except that one.

 

[Odell]

At the minimum, can we all agree to unfollow Cam Hanes?