I’m taking a temporary break from social media. And today Id like to talk about what lead me to make this outrageous decision.
Usually in these article we follow some sort of storyline surrounding a topic. Today however, I just want to get some things off my chest and give you sort of the creator perspective.
I’m going to be talking about things like integrity, but also about the value of stopping and reflecting in life as a human, creator or not.
We sometimes think that everyone else just effortlessly have everything figured out and we're the only ones feeling lost. Well, there’s at least one more person feeling that way right now: you’re looking at her.
Lately I’ve been feeling a disconnect with myself as a creative. I’ve been dealing with questions like: is what I’m creating aligning with my values and principles? Am I creating the things I want to create? What’s important to me? Where do I want to take things? And right now, being on social media isn’t exactly helping me figure any of those things out, for a variety of reasons.
Information overload: The very nature of social media encourages superficiality and mindlessness. Were so quick to scroll and click like and comment and share, often without paying much thought to the post itself, or even less, the person behind it, and I’m like that as well.
I watch 95% of Instagram stories: And thanks to the infinite scroll feature, God bless, it never ends. So, within minutes, were exposed to more information than we can ever remember, or even care to remember for that matter.
Now sometimes, for some people, social media can actually help you feel a little less lost: you might feel inspired and get ideas which is of course fantastic. I also think it depends on what field you’re in. Personally, in times like this, social media just makes me feel like I’m in a room where everyone is yelling, and I can’t understand any of it.
Even if they might actually be saying nice things I just want out. Literally. Outside. Because nothing inspires me more than just living, as cheesy as that may sound. So, I know that for me, the only way to reconnect is to disconnect.
Artistic integrity: To some people (in any creative field, the most important thing is personal growth and artistic growth. To others, the most important thing is audience growth and exposure growth. I’m not saying one is better than the other, and I’m also not saying that everyone falls into one of either categories, I definitely think there’s a spectrum.
But I do think knowing where you stand as a creative is something that needs to be clear, because different objectives will require different measures. I think I know where I stand and I’ve always known, I just need to reconnect with that, and in order to do that, I think it’s important to take a step back and zoom out.
You know, once you start putting your work out there, you start to learn what type of, let’s say articles as an example, typically perform better than others.
And sometimes, the kind of articles that perform better aren’t necessarily the kind of articles that you enjoy making the most, and sometimes the articles that do in fact perform better, aren’t the type of articles that align with the author that you are or want to be. It may simply not be what you want to create.
But due to the very nature of how validation is received on social media, that is, through likes, shares, comments, praise, I think it can sometimes be difficult to not let those things influence you to the point where you compromise your artistic integrity for the sake of recognition or acceptance or popularity.
When you are able to maintain your own highest standards of integrity regardless of what others may do you are destined for greatness. When I first got into photography, it was purely for fun and for myself.
This was long before Instagram was even a thing. I just loved capturing moments and things that I found to be beautiful or strange; really just anything that just made me feel something. But then as I got on social media and time went on, not only did videography kind of take over, but the reason photography was so easy to let go of was because it had become less fun.
Anytime I snapped photos, I’d have to be honest with myself and ask am I happy with this photograph because it’s making me feel something, or am I happy with it because it looks like the type of photograph that will get a lot of likes and I’m looking forward to the rush that I’ll get from that and perhaps some blue-tik people will praise my work which will give other people the impression that I’m cool and relevant? Now, I’m not saying it can’t be both, but we’re usually mainly motivated by one or the other.
And look, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to curate your feed and being sales- and marketing minded. In fact, if you’re trying to build a business (which a lot of artists want because who doesn’t want to be able to make a living doing what they love), it’s absolutely necessary to some extent. But where does business smart end and compromising your integrity begin?
Now, I’m trying not to be a black and white kind of person, where I’m either on all social media platforms and posting every day, or I’m deleting them all off my phone at once. Although that’s what I’ll be doing now for a few weeks, I’ll definitely go back to posting quotes on Twitter and chatting with you all on Instagram soon enough. The conversations we have over there are incredibly meaningful to me. But for now, I’m going to focus on me.
I think everyone should take a step back sometimes and ask, hold up, what am I doing again?. Even in our personal life, pausing to reevaluate is important. It’s easy to just get caught up in old habits and ways of doing things and ways of being, and even ways of thinking.
Like, the other day I was talking with a friend who’s someone I really care about, and she told me she’s been struggling a bit mentally lately. And that really made me stop and reflect on our friendship and myself as a friend.
You know, it shouldn’t need to get to the point where something happens that kind of forces us to stop and reflect, but rather, I think it’s important to do that voluntarily from time to time, even if everything seems to be going smoothly.
You know, life isn’t a race, it’s an infinite road trip. So, stop on the way, have a picnic, check out the view. That’s what I’m going to be doing. Literally. The weather here in has been lovely this week. We finally got some sun, and the air is getting warm, so I’m going to on a walk with a friend now. I know, an introvert with a friend. Wild.
Alright, thank you for reading my little story.