The Artist and Social Media
Note: I wrote this article with the intention of sharing it with other artists, especially older artists who maybe feel pressured to use social media. In this article I speak directly to artists, speaking from my own experience of using social media in the context of my art.
I’d like to take this moment to thank my Patrons and my constant supporters who have never stopped supporting my art. I still post to Instagram from time to time, but it is through platforms like Patreon that I am able to truly share my work and voice, on my own terms. I’m grateful for that.
Prior to 2018, we see an influx in articles and blog posts outlining a cultural interest in handmade goods. Some writing even points to a revival of the Arts & Crafts movement. After 2018, these kinds of posts dwindle. There is still a desire for handmade goods in certain areas (for example, the COVID-19 pandemic called for the encouragement of people to invest in handmade items for their homes, to make their spaces more comfortable), but something in the world changed, shifting general perception of the handmade.
In 2018, TikTok merged with Musical.ly and became available worldwide.
TikTok is currently the most popular social media platform, with an approximated 800 million users worldwide, with an average of 1 billion video views per day. The platform is a video sharing app, and the first to perform based off of recommendation first (unlike other social media platforms that allow you to first build a record of what you, the user, are interested in). The app opens, and you are immediately shown a video. The video clips are around 30 seconds, with the minimum length being 3 seconds. While the videos are short, it’s estimated that the average user spends about 50 minutes on TikTok at one time. TikTok offers videos on any number of topics, from meme fodder to art process videos to life hacks to pets to the darker kinds of topics that lurk on any given corner of the internet. Whatever you are interested in, you can find it on TikTok.
But… can you? Can you actually find anything you want, or do the algorithms put you in an echo chamber? Is the experience as enrichening as other forms of internet interaction? Is TikTok causing more harm than good?
In general, there is a debate as to whether social media benefits artists in any real way. Social media and the internet on a whole has made art theft far simpler, expediting the process of stealing designs and ideas. Intellectual property is misappropriated, artwork is reposted into grainy oblivion, and artists are “cancelled” when their work is taken out of context in the digital space. I myself have had my work stolen, reposted without my consent, and I’ve even had my artwork digitally grafitto’d. It feels like at best, the artist’s connection to the work is removed, and the artist becomes anonymous within the context of that particular work. At worst, the artist’s work is completely stolen and abused.
I am a textile artist. I weave, embroider, make rugs. I also work in other mediums, including digital illustration, but my heart is bound by needle and thread. It wasn’t until a recent break from social media that I realized how much social media has damaged my relationship with my practice. I realized that being bombarded with images and videos made me feel like I should be making faster, that I should be on the same level as some kind of machine. I realized that I felt disconnected from one of the biggest parts of my craft that I love; the mindfulness and attention to detail. This revelation brought me to the Arts & Crafts movement. In particular, how the rise of industrialization in the 19th century parallels the rise of telecommunications and social media. I have been considering what this parallel means in terms of art, and how art is perceived.
The internet is the newest frontier of humankind, and has made for some of the greatest strides in modern history. Documentarian Adam Curtis said that the invention and integration of computers, “finally allows you to colonize the last free outpost- the human mind.”
This quote applies pretty significantly to the use of social media in particular. The sad reality is that we do not have nearly as much control over social media, and the internet on a whole, as we think. We are constantly getting recommendations, being tracked, and being monitored. Not necessarily by people, but artificial intelligence in the form of algorithms.
What does this mean to us as artists? It means that maybe social media isn’t the incredible resource that we think it is. The internet demands incredible speed, and constant interaction, which means that to be relevant in the digital world, we must sacrifice our own art making. The realm of TikTok and Instagram have no patience for how long it takes us to create a work of art, regardless of what our medium is. An artwork that takes weeks, or months, or sometimes years, is reduced down to a single photograph, or a 30 second clip. This devalues the amount of work that it takes to create art, and thus, artwork becomes devalued. Our work is placed on the same level as something that was mass produced in a factory for pennies. Form, skill, and aesthetic are devalued in the name of consumerism.
The interesting thing is, internet culture fosters a desire for a sense of individuality. There is a relationship between individualism and consumerism. Yet, this consumerism, despite the millions of choices (including handmade items, as well as fine art and craft), still directs people to buying items that are a dime a dozen, and offer no real sense of individual style or identity. It’s a little bit ironic.
The Arts & Craft movement was interested in the revitalization of craftsmanship, and pre-capitalist forms of culture and society. Writers and theorists like A.W.N. Pugin and John Ruskin encouraged the pursuit of the quality and honesty that is connected to handcrafted works. These founders of the movement were critical of the Industrial Revolution, seeing it as impersonal and mechanized. The Arts & Crafts movement was connected to the Aesthetic Movement, which called for beauty for beauty sake, and later the Bauhaus continued ideas from Arts & Craft in its “aim to bring art back into contact with everyday life.” This art movement was at its height between 1880 and 1920, existing in Europe and America. The Arts and Crafts movement even emerged in Japan in the 1920s at the Mingei movement.
What we can learn from Modern art movements like Arts & Crafts is that there is a potential for individuals to care about art and how we interact with it in our day to day. That dialogue starts with the artists, and the question at hand is, how do we as artists broach the topic? How do we convince people to care about art and craft, especially in a time when social media rules our lives? A lot of the work is already done for us. Why?
Because people want art. People want to access to art.
If this were not the case, if people weren’t interested in art and handmade items, websites like Etsy wouldn’t continue to thrive. Sites like DeviantArt wouldn’t continue to operate. We wouldn’t have apps like Daily Art, that deliver art history right to your phone. It’s just that social media distracts people. There is also a deeply nefarious underbelly to sites like Facebook and Instagram, where they are constantly zeroing in on small businesses, making it more and more difficult for consumers and admirers to access (and purchase) the work. These apps and sites do a great job of sucking people into these echo chambers where they can feel safe; the consumer sees ideas that they agree with, they get information from like-minded individuals. Social media creates comfortable wombs of social validation. Through this comfort, individuals can be targeted to become consumers. This whole set up doesn’t make much room for experiencing new art, let alone artists being able to run their businesses without further paying into the ornate web of algorithms.
Ultimately, in all of my experience, I don’t think that social media is the answer for artists. It’s illogical to spend more time promoting ourselves than making actual art. Not to mention that I’m not sure that the gains outweigh the risks. I’m not here to say that we should all delete our pages and accounts. Rather, there are other options and other ways to engage with our audiences. As artists we should have the flexibility to experiment with alternative forms of interaction. Part of what makes us artists is our willingness to experiment, and I believe that that should extend to all aspects of our art, including how we promote ourselves. That being said, I don’t even think that we should have to work so hard to promote ourselves; we make art, and people want art. This much is clear (take the global pandemic, for example, and how it made it very clear that people need art to survive). Yet, we’re always expected to donate our work and give away our work for free. Spending time making social media posts to promote our work is an extension of that ideology. Social media may cause more people to see our work, but it dehumanizes us as artists, and devalues our work. We are essentially paying social media platforms to promote our work, but we ourselves run the risk of not getting paid.
Prior to my retreat from social media (specifically my poison of choice, Instagram), I started to feel like a shell of a person. When you remove yourself from social media, you are viewed as some kind of social pariah. After all, why on EARTH would you want to remove yourself from social media? I have had so many conversations with friends and colleagues about the pros and cons of social media, and the internet on a whole. There’s a belief that without the internet, we wouldn’t have the same access to ideas and teachings that are available specifically because of social media.
My response to this. I’ll share part of my personal art making manifesto:
1. Instant gratification kills creativity.
2. The internet is an ethical dilemma.
3. I don’t want fifteen minutes of fame. I want immortality.
Together, these three phrases mean that we artists have the possibility to change and shape the world around us. We should not depend on the instant gratification that comes with seeing “likes” on our social media platforms. We shouldn’t turn to apps like TikTok, lusting over the alleged fame that so many have gained. Our work is strong enough to exist outside of the ether that is the internet. Through art, we have immortality. Through our identity as artists, we have the power to exist outside of the norm. We have the power to create powerful art that can be shared and consumed in ethical ways.
At the end of the day, social media platforms are a tool. All tools have potential to build great things, but tools also have the potential to harm. We can choose to use these tools to our advantage, but the key is not get lost in the narratives created by social media. The key is not become addicted to these platforms. The key is to not lose ourselves and our voices within the endless scrolling. The key is to remind ourselves of our true individuality and identity outside of a social sphere.
It is possible to thrive as an artist outside of the realms of social media. Artists have been doing it for millennia, and there’s no reason why we can’t apply similar ideas to our lives today. Even if you continue to use the internet as a tool, you can navigate away from these types of social media platforms that throttle our messages. Websites, blogs, newsletters, and even Patreon, are just some of the many ways to communicate with your audience and admirers of your art without succumbing to the psychology of social media.
A quick guide to redefining your relationship with social media:
1. Ask yourself “What do I gain from social media?”
2. Ask yourself “Am I spending more time on the internet than I am creating my work?”
3. Ask yourself “How do I feel after I’ve been on social media?”
4. Ask yourself “Do I want to be on social media?”
5. Take a weekend off from using your phone. Turn it off, or turn off all notifications except for text and calls.
6. Don’t use your devices right before you go to sleep, or right when you get up in the morning. Instead, drink some water and read a book.
7. Take a week off of social media. Only use your phone for calls and text.
8. Seek out documentaries, books, audio books, and podcasts that inspire you. Seek out forms of entertainment and escapism that help you reconnect with yourself.
9. Ask yourself “Why do I expect myself to use social media?”
10. Ask yourself “Does my art benefit from a constant use of social media?”
11. Ask yourself “Does social media benefit me?”
Recommended reading (books that helped me question and redefine my relationship with my art and myself outside of social media)
How To Not Always Be Working by Marlee Grace
Silence in the Age of Noise by Erling Kagge
Mending Life by Nina and Sonya Montenegro
Ways of Seeing by John Berger
