This is an interesting take by Matt and very well stated, but I'll play a little devil's advocate here and respectfully disagree with his main point. I think social media is causing other major problems, but not so much this one. I agree with many of Matt's sub-points, especially about people who dishonestly portray what they're doing, and he provides great food for thought on others (like the pros and cons of showing bad shots).
There is something ironic about discussing the downsides of social media here on a forum, which is one of the original forms of social media, and I think still the best form. I've learned things and made connections here on Rokslide that were 100 % critical to my success learning new hunt areas and species. One of my main problems with new mainstream social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook is that they're siphoning audience away from smaller topical forums but are nowhere near as conducive to long-form conversations or generating an archive of useful advice like you find on Rokslide. However, many of the people with the highest profiles on social media are also generating different kinds of useful, long-form educational content too.
Rather than butchering meat for the freezer or tanning a hide, these kinds of hunters mostly want photos on their iPhones to beam out across the internet.
What percent of guys you see out there in the woods are really out there primarily for this reason? I think in most cases social media just provides a new way of doing things people have always wanted to do. It's just a more efficient version of the photo boards in Sportsman's Warehouse. Most people are still in it for the meat, the experience, and the head on the wall to remind them of the experience or impress visiting friends.
Does anybody here really feel like social media changes your motivation for hunting, or it's the reason you're hunting in the first place? I don't know anybody who'd say yes to that. I'm sure there are a few, but they're probably a tiny minority with out-sized visibility.
I do like to document my hunting and fishing adventures and share them on my website and forums like Rokslide. I'm always thinking about how to capture the experience in photos, both to help me remember years later and to share with others what it was like being out there. I like to read a well-told hunting story with some good photography and live others' adventures vicariously in the off-season, so I contribute my own to that pool too. I enjoy photography and telling stories, and for me mixing those interests with hunting simply makes it better. And when I walk ten miles on spotty trail up a drainage with none of the animals I'm chasing, capturing some great photos to remember the place really takes the sting off the long walk out.
Years ago, I completely stopped after seriously asking myself why I wanted lots of people to see what I had shot. Upon reflection, I realized bragging was my sole motivation. This troubled me.
One benefit to having people like Cam Haines and Ryan Lampers posting their kills on social media is that I can't be accused of shooting anything worth bragging about.
I suppose you could say I'm bragging about the experience rather than the animal, but I think it's more of a normal human inclination to swap stories, just the next technological iteration of what started with cave paintings. I don't like to listen to people brag, but I love to read a good hunt report.
public land hunting often begins with struggling to find parking at the trailhead, followed by struggling to find animals so pressured they suffer from PTSD. According to 2017 survey data, over half of hunters have abandoned spots due to crowding
Every time I've been frustrated by overcrowding in a hunting spot, I felt like I was asking for it by exploring too near the road system and not getting deep enough into the backcountry. Every time I research a backcountry spot carefully, I end up worrying about people and then only seeing few if any. I know it doesn't always work that way for everyone or in every unit, but I'm satisfied with how easy it is to get away from people in my experience.
There are also benefits to maintaining a high number of hunters. Hunters are very important to protecting hunting politically. Hunters on the political right curb the desire of some right-wing politicians to sell off public lands or drill, mine, and log them into oblivion. Hunters on the political left curb the desire of some left-wing politicians to pass pointless, over-the-top gun control measures like heavy ammo taxes. It's hard for either party to do these kinds of damage if even 10-20 % of their members rely on hunters for even 10-20 % of their vote to win primaries. Basically, hunters pull both parties toward the center on some key issues that matter to hunting and prevent some rash mistakes.
I think some hunting media also helps curious non-hunters better understand hunting and be more likely to support hunting politically. In non-hunting online communities I run into a lot of people who don't hunt themselves but respect it as a more sustainable and ethical way to get meat than agriculture. There are plenty of other non-hunters who still think hunting is just about "proving your manhood by hurting innocent animals" or similar bullshit, and it's good to have shows out there like Meat Eater that do a decent job portraying what the experience of hunting is really about: food, being out in nature, tackling adversity, camaraderie, etc.
The target audience for all this is clearly hunting-curious nonhunters because seasoned hunters don’t need 101-level how-to content.
Lots of the long-form content these guys are putting out is above 101-level, though. I've hunted all my life but still learned a ton from educational stuff put out by people like Remi, especially when learning a new species.
Steve Rinella is more 101, but like I said above I think he's doing a good job as an ambassador to help non-hunters respect hunting, and that's really valuable in its own way.
Influencers like to believe they’re elevating our reputation among the nonhunting public, but social media has severely damaged our reputation among nonhunters as well as reduced hunting opportunity.
I'm sure this is true to an extent, especially with some of the people who just post trophy shots instead of long-form content that treats the experience with due respect. But social media isn't going away, and no essay is going to convince the actual braggarts to stop. Given that fact, I think this makes an argument for
more people to representing hunting the right way on social media. Otherwise, small number of highly visible people who are in it for the wrong reasons are going to take over the public face of hunting.