I'm depressed.

[DeanChriss]

I'm "non commercial". Just do it for fun. In addition to the normal stuff, I shoot a few annual events, post them on a Smugmug account. Last weekend was my favorite event, an Asian festival. Lots of beautiful people in colorful costumes, willing to pose.

Spent 10 hours shooting, then about 25 hours editing a batch of 120 keepers. I'm certainly not the best, but I'm pretty good. Pay a lot of attention to detail. Lots of local adjustment brushing, lots of cloning and healing. Calibrated system, custom profiles, high end equipment, years of experience. Pretty, pretty pictures.

This year I finally implemented Google Analytics on my Smugmug account. Now I've got stats. That's why I'm depressed. In just 4 days, about 350 people have visited the site, making over 4,000 hits on the images. They are being led to my Smugmug site by Facebook. That's the good news.

The bad news is that Google says 70% of those people used a smart phone. Another 10% used a tablet, leaving only 20% using a "desktop". I think Google counts laptops as desktops.

And a pattern is obvious. The smartphone users come in, look at only 2 to 5 images and leave. The tablet and desktop users hang around more, browsing through dozens of images. A few browse the entire gallery.

Is this our future and is the future already here? Is all our hard work to be wasted on a 4" phone display? Why all those debates about noise reduction, sharpening, color management, etc., if our work is largely consumed in a way that makes no difference?

Thanks for all the feedback. Some clarification...

Emphasis on being a "non commercial" photographer. I don't sell anything. Don't need the money, not trying to reach wide audiences. Just an old retired guy having fun. My satisfaction probably comes 90% from self, but I realize I need an occasional "atta boy" or "thank you".

When I cover special events I'd like the people I photograph to receive the images. This Asian Festival, for example, is mostly youth (5 to 25) whose proud parents have dressed them up in clutural garb and taught them their heritage through dances. The parents are snapping away with cell phones and P&S cameras, paying no attention to cluttered backgrounds, harsh sunlight, etc. I'm shooting for me, but also for those parents. So I try to get the images to them. I feel good when my Smugmug pages start getting hits from India, China, Thailand, Viet Nam. That means proud mama sent the link to relatives back in the old country. That's how I get paid.

For "pcgpcg", I don't have a Facebook account, but the festival organization does. They put an item on their Facebook page and that leads people to my Smugmug gallery. I think everybody who participates in the festival are friends of that Facebook page.

I spent years in a wet darkroom where it was all about the print, and I worshiped at the temple of Ansel Adams. For me, anything smaller than 8x10 is a thumbnail or a proof, worthy only for deciding whether to move on to the real thing. I don't think I'll ever accept a smartphone as anything more than a phone.

I'd like to think those smartphone browsers are using their 2 or 3 hits to decide to look at the real thing on a real monitor when they get home. But I have doubts. The numbers don't support it. I suspect the smartphone breeds apathy and short attention spans.

Overall it sounds like you are getting about all you could hope for out of the Internet. Viewing photos online can be a great way to get inspired or to see what other photographers are doing, and it makes photos available to anyone who'd like to look. At the same time it's not a great way to see the nuances of a photograph no matter how people view them. For starters there's no way to know or control how an image looks on someone else's monitor, regardless of how big or small it may be. Beyond that, and for good reason, not many post high resolution images online. Regardless of how the image is ultimately viewed, it's unlikely to be much larger than 800 or so pixels wide. On top of that there are often giant copyright watermarks that prevent copying while turning the image into a billboard. Kept in proper perspective the Internet can be a great "place" for photographers, but for an occasional "atta boy" and personal involvement I'd suggest a local photo club. There are also lots of libraries, community centers, city halls, and art organizations all over the country that host small shows from time to time. They range from "group shows" where each person displays just a couple prints to one person shows. Your photographs would definitely get some eye time at these and they'd be presented in a way that can't be equaled online. You don't have to sell the prints if you don't want to. I've seen lots of NFS (not for sale) exhibits. It sounds to me like trying to get what you are lacking from the Internet can only be an exercise in frustration.

[BJL]

Well, you can't shoot it like this with a cell phone...as of yet.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/05/29/selection-from-180-project-2/

If you want to beat the cell phones...shoot work that is beyond them.

There are fish-eye lenses for phones though! Here is one image from the gallery of Olloclip



Of course at some stage, the bulk of add-on lenses means it is just as easy to carry a dedicated compact camera with a suitable lens and a somewhat bigger sensor.

[Herbc]

The digital world has created a section of society that has the attention span of a gnat.
Do what you like and don't worry about the internet.
 I have been a serious (briefly pro) photographer since the 1950's.  First camera was a Speed Graphic.
Lately all digital, because I am lazy (and old).  What work I print is the only work I show, and none online.  Gallery competitions come up all the time, and I enter 2 or 3 per year.  These are judged by an expert,  last one was by Burk Uzzle, a famous 8x10 photographer. More often some professor of Art or a Museum director.
  Quite often competition is across the art world, paintings, sculpture and the like, some of it quite hideous.
My black and white landscapes still get in, win a few hundred bucks and sell occasionally.  These competitions are where I suggest you get satisfaction from your efforts.
There is an online 'call for artists' or some such that lists competitions in the USA; pick one close by and go for it.  Universities usually have a call for artists as well.

[dwswager]

The digital world has created a section of society that has the attention span of a gnat.
Do what you like and don't worry about the internet.
 I have been a serious (briefly pro) photographer since the 1950's.  First camera was a Speed Graphic.
Lately all digital, because I am lazy (and old).  What work I print is the only work I show, and none online.  Gallery competitions come up all the time, and I enter 2 or 3 per year.  These are judged by an expert,  last one was by Burk Uzzle, a famous 8x10 photographer. More often some professor of Art or a Museum director.
  Quite often competition is across the art world, paintings, sculpture and the like, some of it quite hideous.
My black and white landscapes still get in, win a few hundred bucks and sell occasionally.  These competitions are where I suggest you get satisfaction from your efforts.
There is an online 'call for artists' or some such that lists competitions in the USA; pick one close by and go for it.  Universities usually have a call for artists as well.

1. A photographer, as any artist should get satisfaction from the act and product itself.  No outside validation needed!

2. With mobile devices there is a significant segment that is all about immediacy versus quality.  As it is a value judgement as to what is more important there is no right or wrong, only opinion.  My daughters have iPhone 5s that they won't even let the screen rotate.  If they can tell who is in the photo, then is passes their minimum criteria.

3.  Quality work will get noticed.  You may not personally hear it, but those that see it an compare to others as we always do, will know.

[Otto Phocus]

1. A photographer, as any artist should get satisfaction from the act and product itself.  No outside validation needed!

2. With mobile devices there is a significant segment that is all about immediacy versus quality.  As it is a value judgement as to what is more important there is no right or wrong, only opinion.  My daughters have iPhone 5s that they won't even let the screen rotate.  If they can tell who is in the photo, then is passes their minimum criteria.

3.  Quality work will get noticed.  You may not personally hear it, but those that see it an compare to others as we always do, will know.

Nicely put!