Social media has become a necessity these days, and I’ve decided to quit using two of the biggest names in the game.
We certainly live in an interesting time. Social media has become the driving force behind just about everything we do now. People make livings off of managing social accounts and engaging with others on these platforms. It has almost become required that artists like myself have a presence on these sites to showcase our work. You might even say it is now crucial for artistic growth. I played along and was fairly active on all the major platforms for a while. However, I’ve recently decided to stop using Facebook and Twitter altogether.
I have developed a love-hate relationship with social media over the years. I recognize it’s importance for certain things like advertising artwork and showing it off to the world, but it has also been a source of my anger and frustration. I believe that is because I fell into the social media trap. What exactly is that? Well I see it as becoming too obsessed with the number of “Likes” and “Followers” you receive. That obsession then becomes a deciding factor in ones own self-worth and value. The problem is that it’s a very easy trap to fall into. You post a sketch, illustration, or whatever it is that you create and you see the number of likes start piling up. Those notification pings trigger an endorphin rush and you start feeling excited. Then you see the followers go up and you become elated. You start thinking “Hey! People are taking note of my content and they like what they see/hear/read. I’m doing something right! Awesome!” So then you continue creating similar content because that clearly resonated with others. But the next few pieces of content don’t perform as well. In fact, you hear crickets. Hardly any likes and no new followers. Hell, you might even see a few unfollows. You get confused and devastated. You then ask yourself “Why is this content doing so poorly now? Was the other just a fluke? Why haven’t I taken off yet? Am I just not as good as I thought?” That right there is the trap.
I fell into the social media trap.
Social media should not dictate how you view yourself or the work you make. It is not indicative of the quality you produce. I have met and discovered many artists that are way better than what their numbers may say. For a while I couldn’t see that. I was becoming self-obsessed with my social media stats and felt it consume me. I wanted to create things just to generate more “Likes” and “Follows” because I saw that as validation of my worth as an artist. It was actually a huge reason why I lost my focus, which I talked heavily upon last week. I had to take a step back and really look at how social media was affecting me and why I was using it. It’s simply a tool I use to showcase my artwork on any given platform. Logically, one would then assume that posting on every major platform would just increase the amount of people who could see my work. For years I did just that. But in these last few months, I noticed things that had me rethinking that strategy entirely. Which brings me to Facebook and Twitter. It may seem blasphemous to some, but I have to say it…They are useless to me.
I suppose I should clarify that this is just my opinion and that I recognize that these platforms may provide something useful for other artists out there. Just looking at my experience with these two specifically, I concluded that they offer no benefit to me anymore. I’ll start with Facebook. I found it incredibly difficult to reach anyone outside of my network of family and friends. It was nice that those close to me could see what I was working on, but they weren’t the right audience. I am grateful for their support, but I needed to be able to reach everyone. Facebook made it unnecessarily difficult to reach those people. Which meant that anything I posted would be seen by the same group of people every time, almost exclusively. That meant that any chance of organic growth was nonexistent. Then I just couldn’t get past some of the dumb things people posted. It felt like it became a host for silly memes and videos, which I wasn’t interested in. Now Twitter is a different beast. It offered the ability to reach a much wider audience, but I just could not figure out that damn algorithm. No matter how hard I tried it seemed like everything I posted there was overlooked simply because the stupid algorithm didn’t favor it. What made it worse was that despite my attempts to manipulate the system in my favor, it never worked. Imagine creating the best artwork you’ve ever done, but you get no feedback only because the stupid site’s mathematical algorithm never properly catches it. It makes two hundred followers feel like five because ninety percent of them never even saw what you posted. The effort I put in didn’t justify the results and I grew tired of playing that game. Posting my artwork on Twitter was the equivalent to showing it to a wall; it was pointless and a waste of time.
The final straw was when they began to suppress certain views and thoughts. Censorship isn’t my thing. I don’t get mixed up in politics, but I support the right to think and speak freely. It doesn’t matter what side of the aisle you stand, everyone has the right to speak their mind no matter how stupid or ignorant it may be. That’s all I’ll say about that. I’m not about to continue using platforms that could shut me down simply because someone didn’t like what they saw or read. I understand that these are companies with the ability to create and enforce their own rules and regulations. However, I can also choose not to follow those dumb rules by just not using the site, so I’m not. Simple as that. Since I’ve made that decision, I’ve felt much more liberated and overall happier.
It was pointless and a waste of time.
Despite all this, the only social media site I use almost exclusively now is Instagram. Yeah I know it’s ironic because Facebook owns Instagram, but that platform feels and operates differently for me. Maybe it’s because I can get through their stupid algorithm and connect and converse with others. There isn’t as much of a disconnect for me so I’m able to use it more successfully. It also really helps when you show off artwork and people can ACTUALLY see it. What a concept, huh? That’s not to say that Instagram’s algorithm isn’t stupid every now and then, I just find it to be less of a hinderance then those other two places. I’ve found a good balance there for now, but I’m sure it’s a matter time before the hammer strikes down hard. It’s why I’m using alternative platforms more like my own website as well. There’s no mathematical equation telling you what you’ll see around here. There’s no person or program that controls what I put here. That artistic freedom is very enticing going forward. With the help of Instagram for the time being, I feel like real growth is achievable here on this blog and website. I’ve heard many people say that if you aren’t actively growing you feel dead inside. Since I’ve made these choices, I’ve never felt more alive.
The Art of David Stankowicz 