Social Media and Art

Sorry for the late blog post, but I would like to direct the attention to a controversial topic for many artists.

Back before Instagram actually enabled the feature, there were many debates over whether like amount should be visible to social media users.

There are obviously pros and cons to both sides. People arguing for like counts to stay will typically say that it is the user's free choice while others that wish for its removal claim that likes are an unhealthy measure for many.

I can certainly see where the cons are coming from.

I certainly was no Picasso in Instagram fame, but I noticed how other artists on the platform and I had begun to pay more attention to our interactions, the likes, the comments, the shares, the hashtags, more than our actual work. The effort I put into a digital drawing lost value to me if it couldn't garner the number of likes I expected. It became an unhealthy cycle; I was looking more towards art trends to hop on over what I actually felt like drawing at the moment.

Social media is extremely beneficial to gaining attraction and finding mutuals who share your interest, but it can also create an unhealthy addiction to internet attention.

As for my choice? My current Instagram art account is inactive, but I still love to share my art with my friends.