Don´t be afraid of shutter speed, costs of pro lenses, raw files, and all this! Just get started with whatever you have.
Learning new things is very satisfying, and it is never a waste of time. I believe it is exactly what our brain needs to stay healthy. Photography is a great way to literally see the world with different eyes.
Some might relate photography to expensive equipment. To me, photography starts when we start thinking about the composition of a photo and the settings of the camera. And that is something we can learn with simple equipment. Little changes can make big differences. And with the joy of photography comes the wish to find new objects, events, or people to capture. This knowledge will bring benefits to many areas of your life. May it be at work, your social media life, weddings, etc. You might also discover other fields of interest when you start looking at things as a photographer!
As a beginner, I would avoid taking professionals too seriously. No offense, but they often have a certain understanding of equipment, but mostly also of criticism. That can potentially ruin your enthusiasm.
My idea of learning photography is to enjoy trying to improve your photos. That can definitely be done with a handphone. In fact, whenever learning new things, I would start cheap. You´ll learn fast whether you stick with it, and if an investment is needed.
You might decide to specialize, or even use your photos for another project. I like macro photography, and I like animals. So my blog picmybug.com displays my macro shots of insects and spiders. These are mostly handphone photos!
There are numerous sites to help you get started, as this blog here. You can find some helpful charts on Pinterest, which help you to find the right aperture or lens or whatever. I really like the Huawei P30pro, this phone has a pro mode, where you can set all this manually.
Enjoy learning!
