Social media is hard (a rant)

[arsenic supper]

omitto

Kuroshiro-san

I kinda feel like I need to vent here so bear with me

It's just that I'm putting in a lot of effort and getting nothing in response. I'm an introvert, so trying to socialize with people is especially exhausting, even on the internet. I'm trying to build an audience, trying to find people that actually like my art, but I'm just yelling into an echo chamber full of other artists that are more popular than me.

I could try to pin it on other things, but in the end, the truth is the one that's hard to accept - I'm not standing out because I don't deserve it.

Thanks to social media technology, the numbers are there - hundreds or even thousands of people scroll past the results of my hard work without feeling inclined to click that "like" button. Because they simply don't like my art. And that fact is unremarkable, yet soul-crushing. While I greatly appreciate it when even one or two people show appreciation for what I do, I can't help but focus on the vast majority of people that don't.

Of course, this had always been the case - people not liking my art was normal, because I didn't like my art either. But as I've grown as an artist, I ended up gaining a very important asset - self confidence. I started appreciating my own art, opening commissions, trying to put myself out there... but nothing. No one cared, basically. I can't help but feel like I did this to myself. Nothing changed about the world, only thing that changed was me; I showed optimism. But now it's bleeding out, and it's hard to keep this confidence going.

After all, improvement in art is a never-ending road. I guess... I thought I could take a short rest and enjoy the view from where I've climbed. It's just a little disheartening that I'm still not visible from here.

Alright, rant over. Thanks for reading - I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Your art is great. The problem is social media is oversaturated with artists and unless you're posting art multiple times a day, it's difficult for people to actually find you and then make an effort to like/favorite it. I see a lot of artists do #dtiys and that's a good way to participate in the community and get more views.

Truuuuuth. Living in this oversaturated late-stage capitalist world is like trying to sell art on Venice Beach in Cali. There&s a s**t ton of artists just lined up with their stuff and unless a bunch of people are at your table, it&s easy to miss you. The algorithms in these platforms exist specifically to boost people who have PAID to advertise their work. If you could pay instagram or facebook to &boost& (advertise) your post, then you&d get more engagement. Which is like... social media has turned into a digital newspaper. We use it as a selling platform rather than to connect. Like, thousands of people aren&t actually seeing it unless you use the &right& hashtags and have money to get ahead.



Basically, if you&re poor you&re f*cked.

[I SO VERY----- I]

ive been spending a lot of time looking into this..because I'm also trying to use Social Media to get some art sales and making it work is so hard.. and more and more I'm seeing that knowing your way around the algorithm is actually more important than talent to some extent because you've really got to get your piece shown to the right person in the first place.

I have seen many AMAZING artists and thought "well they have to have 1mil followers!"..to see that they actually only have under 1000... and then there are some artists that do have huge followings and honestly, they're quite bad..

I understand your frustration but don't take a 'lack of likes' as a true measure of whether or not people actually like your work.

I'm not sure how you're checking your views but if you're just looking at your followers count, its likely that only 10% of your followers even get to see your social media post in their feed at all.. especially if you're talking about instagram or a facebook business page.