A while ago I took a break from Facebook posting...
Now that I am back online, I'm trying to come to terms with this reluctant alliance, and manage the unfortunate power it has over my emotions.
Many of us are quick to rush in and either condemn or defend social media. Like most society-altering innovations it has produced positive and negative side-effects, and we have all felt some combination of those to varying degrees in our daily lives.
As an artist there is infinite potential to harness the power of these platforms for self-promotion, and it gives audiences across the globe an opportunity to see work by creatives that they may never have encountered otherwise.
That's amazing, and exciting, but it's also sort of daunting when you're putting your little paper-boat of presentable talent out into a sometimes volatile ocean of consumable online media.
There's no guarantee that what you set afloat will be seen, let alone attract interest, and often if it does (or even when it doesn't), someone will take great pleasure in throwing stones and trying to sink it. It pays to be a thick-skinned voyager in this age of casual criticism and anonymous nastiness, and if I am being honest, I am so not one of those. I'm aware that this is probably a serious failing on my part, and that it's not admirable to show weakness when you're promoting yourself or your brand, even if being authentic is - unless your particular vulnerability is trending of course. Caring what people think of you has never in the history of humankind been considered "cool". Now more than ever we are encouraged to "not give a f*ck" in order to get ahead. I even read a self-help book about it - 'twas a jolly fun read, but it didn't help me at all. Rationally I understand that only a handful of people on this planet really know me, so the opinions of anybody outside of that trusted circle should mean very little. My esteem should not be based on the tacit approval of people I barely know, but whether I want it to or not, social media has the ability to influence my real-life feelings. Scary stuff!
Even so, I'm donning my sailor hat again today and setting another little boat out to sea, because I made it, and I want to show it off, as trivial or poorly constructed as it may be.
If someone sinks it, I must persist and build another...
Or take a social media break. That works too.
Comments