Day 06

Death by a Thousand Likes

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and I think it’s true, but here is 1,000 words on why you should take less pictures.

This morning I listened to the Tragedies of Modernity podcast between Thomas J Bevan and Craig Burgess. In it they highlighted this phenomenon of becoming captured by your audience. They use the example of an author who’s written a book. Next thing you know, This author becomes trapped into needing to sell that book and that’s the part nobody tells you about. I thought to myself, that really is a tragedy of modernity. Going off, paying your dues, creating something of merit, reaching that end point of tying it together into something worthwhile, and finding yourself on the other side, where you need readers and so you must sell.

The audience trap, the most common pitfall for any new, seasoned, and/or aspiring artist. I’ve trudged along making content for the last 2 years and I have to say, it was better when nobody listened. Sure, I would lament that nobody cared, and I would celebrate when I received a little engagement on something I’d made. It felt good, but more than anything I was free to say what I wanted, and to say it in the way I wanted. Was it comical how poorly done it was? Yes, oftentimes, but I never thought oh I shouldn’t say this because it wouldn’t be well received or worry about who it may offend. Sharing these things on twitter, has shades of performance art, which I enjoy. Now to be sure I’m still learning how to do it, but I can safely say that at least a handful of these images I’ve created have brought a smirk or a gentle laugh to someone else’s face and that feels good. Never noticing along the way that I was becoming slightly more popular, according to metrics anyhow. Unwittingly becoming better and better at creating tweets that would travel and picking up followers along the way. This is it, this is the trap. For an artist I think there is definitely a desire to be recognized for your work. It varies in intensity, from completely absent to total catering but I think there’s some level of it in people of all sorts, but especially artists, because art is personal. Art takes time and effort to produce and often (not always) the artist leaves a little piece of themself or at least an echo of their former self in that work. For this reason, social media is dangerous, because there is attention and applause at your fingertips. I knew this coming in, what nobody told me, is how much of a pitfall receiving it can be. How receiving attention and applause can be terribly distracting for going about your day…The blue bells never stop when you tweet a banger. I don’t think I’m the kind of guy who is up his ass about engagement or recognition…but if you get 20-30 likes on something you made it does feel nice. “Oh, I produced a smile out of so and so!” “Got em” I’ll grin with a few pew pew fingers and a wink. Because twitter is performative, even when it’s not. Sometimes we just need to vent or get things off our chest sure, if you put it on twitter, you want someone to hear it. Sometimes we just want to share our viewpoint on a subject, if we want it to be well received, we’ll polish it. Sometimes we just want to share some art, and as soon as it hits twitter it’s also performance art. I may be a little more susceptible to it than some people, but we’re all susceptible to this phenomenon. The energy created when someone likes something you’ve made is warming, palpable, and a lot of times inspires you to keep going or make something new. The problem becomes when we get wrapped up in this feedback loop.

There are two hurdles for anything, the first is making it. That’s the most difficult one, the second is sharing it, and that can be just as difficult. The desire to make connections and share. Things are made better when they’re for and or appreciated by others.

The like button. The most insidious of traps, it feels nice to throw a like on something. It feels nice to receive a like on something you’ve said. It seems so innocent, throwing a thumbs up to someone, putting a heart on the thing. But we are being manipulated by this feedback mechanism into catering to the algorithm. To the point that we are online even when we are offline. There becomes this urge, a desire to see a moment and capture it. My kid is doing something cute, why wouldn’t I want to take a picture so I can show somebody? It used to be this was reserved for friends and family at family gatherings. Now adays we can share it instantly and effortlessly to friends and strangers alike and people love that stuff…Especially grandma (and who doesn’t like to see grandma happy?). Now…no longer is that moment just special, no longer can you tell someone the story of what happened today because that friend you want to tell saw it on Facebook. The gathering you maybe would have had where you tell stories by the fire is no longer needed because you told the whole story there with the picture. It seems innocent, it IS innocent. You just want to share a heartwarming, uplifting, funny, interesting cool moment, but in reaching for the camera you’re entering the online world. The world of performance, you’re leaving the enjoyment you’re having with this simple and very human desire to share with someone else. It’s a brand-new phenomenon and I don’t have to tell you that you’re not the only one who’s doing it. But I think we would do well to resist the urge to put these moments on the cloud, at the very least we should resist the urge to share them on social. Because it deprives us of needing to tell the stories of the moment and there’s a lot of power and energy in telling stories. We get to see the picture through the lens of the viewer rather than the lens of the camera. And that too, is a special kind of picture.