Social media fatigue

[KatKing]

The title doesnt quite describe what im talking about, but i dont know a better way to say it. also, this is kind of a rant, but im curious if anyone else feels this way. Im an artist, and growing up i dreamed of sharing my art with the world like the artists i looked up to. from youtube videos to social media posts to my own website.

i eventually got that dream when i was 15. i started posting my art online and gained 5000 followers in a year. my account grew very fast, especially the final boost that got me to 5k. the rise to about 2k-3kish was a steady gradual pace, and then one of my drawings suddenly blew up. It got about 10k likes and i gained a few thouasand followers in a matter of days. This was on instagram, i feel like it took me about 5 minutes to scroll through all the shares it had gotten to stories. my sequential posts were consistantly hitting the thouasands. it was exciting and eventually anxiety enducing

i struggled with really bad anxiety, and that led to a literally earth shattering existental anxeity attack that i wont get into, but i completely cut myself off from social media all together.

ive gotten over the anxiety that social media caused me, it was a few years ago. ive had small accounts that i update for a month or so and then abandon on various platforms. but as time goes on i find myself more and more fatigued by the idea of putting out content. I filmed clips for a tiktok video on my recent project, but the thought of putting it together and posting it just feels grating. the idea of having a youtube channel seems fun, but its so much work that i cant get myself to do. My current instagram is basically dead.


i know to the perspective of alot of people here, this is a good thing. social media is a curse. i agree somewhat, but as an artist, you need social media. i want to sell the things i create. i want people to see them. im lucky to of broken the curse of creating for the whims of others, but at this point, sharing art with even just my freinds feels exhausting and unrewarding. Even posting stuff on here feels that way. its something i know i *should* be doing, everyone else is, everyone else can, but i cant. Feels like a personal failure and a wasted opportunity.

i even want to create a website, but thats so much work. its all so much work. it should be fun work, but its not anymore. i wish i could get someone else to just do it for me, lol.

[zawieja]

I had the opposite issue, but a similar outcome, so to say.
As an artist I could never gain followers as easily as other people seemed to do. And hey, I still don't know how the other people do it! And I know for a fact that my art is pretty awesome, so I guess the issue is just my awful marketing skills.The end result - I'm often just putting art out there because it feels like I need to, but being a bit of a failure at the whole popularity thing, it all feels very unrewarding. Doesn't help that social media just kinda sucks these days in general.

What helps me is just treating social media as little archives to me, not a necessity. Someone sees it and leaves a comment? Asks me for a commission? Hey, that's cool. If not, it's still nice to see everything I've made in one place! I love making art no matter what, and I know that if my PC breaks I will have an easy access to my drawings in various places.
And I'm not sure if you even need social media to sell things if it's that tiring to you, you can contact publishing houses, newspapers, look up on discord or professional websites if someone is looking for an artist, ask friends... I'm sure you will figure something out! I wish you luck in overcoming this feeling

[Melooon]

At a glance; I could go on about social media and its issues, but it doesn't sound like social media is the issue your having. Your issue is the nature of your art itself, what it means to you and what your expectation is from it.

While I don't know that exact source of stress for you, it seems like your are putting a lot of focus on making art for the sole purpose of presentation. Its natural to want to share your art, but I don't think thats what the creation of art is about; art is about exploring existence and expressing something that can be expressed by no one else in no other way; it should feel exciting to make an artwork, in the same way that other people find climbing a mountain exciting.

To that point: why climb a mountain? because it exists - why make an artwork? because it does not exist.

Admittedly, not everyone feels that excitement; I know artists that make good work that don't feel that, but most of them do end up quitting, because without that excitement, the rewards for your effort simply don't exist 

Is that excitement something you feel or have felt in the past? If you have felt it; you've gotta figure out why is missing and focus on finding it again; forget websites or sharing your work for a while. If its something you've never felt; do the same 

[KatKing]

At a glance; I could go on about social media and its issues, but it doesn't sound like social media is the issue your having. Your issue is the nature of your art itself, what it means to you and what your expectation is from it.

While I don't know that exact source of stress for you, it seems like your are putting a lot of focus on making art for the sole purpose of presentation. Its natural to want to share your art, but I don't think thats what the creation of art is about; art is about exploring existence and expressing something that can be expressed by no one else in no other way; it should feel exciting to make an artwork, in the same way that other people find climbing a mountain exciting.

To that point: why climb a mountain? because it exists - why make an artwork? because it does not exist.

Admittedly, not everyone feels that excitement; I know artists that make good work that don't feel that, but most of them do end up quitting, because without that excitement, the rewards for your effort simply don't exist 

Is that excitement something you feel or have felt in the past? If you have felt it; you've gotta figure out why is missing and focus on finding it again; forget websites or sharing your work for a while. If its something you've never felt; do the same 

its actually kind of the opposite, i feel excited to make art, ive made lots of art recently, its sharing it that doesnt excite me anymore. i used to have a problem with that, but taking several years off from social media has stopped that. for me, i make alot of art dolls, and i want to share them and sell them to people. i want people to be able to enjoy my work. but i just never feel like putting in the effort. im even making a comic, but i dont feel like marketing it. i just want people to magically know about it

ive fallen so out of love with the social part of making art, i wish it wasnt so connected to social media. i wish i could just set up a booth somewhere and have people see my real work, not just a picture and be able to fall in love with it and take it home themselves. i actually had alot of fun with my short lived instagram account, it felt like something special, something that i was good at, and something that i loved doing. but social media is very flawed and that becomes apparent very soon.

like, the bare minimum to me would be to make a website and post my stuff on there, for a few people to enjoy. i dont care about numbers, i just want to feel the excitment and community of sharing art again. but that just feels like so much work

the people around me are also pressuring me to do so i think. its like they think im being stupid by not profiting off waht im makign

[KatKing]

I had the opposite issue, but a similar outcome, so to say.
As an artist I could never gain followers as easily as other people seemed to do. And hey, I still don't know how the other people do it! And I know for a fact that my art is pretty awesome, so I guess the issue is just my awful marketing skills.The end result - I'm often just putting art out there because it feels like I need to, but being a bit of a failure at the whole popularity thing, it all feels very unrewarding. Doesn't help that social media just kinda sucks these days in general.

What helps me is just treating social media as little archives to me, not a necessity. Someone sees it and leaves a comment? Asks me for a commission? Hey, that's cool. If not, it's still nice to see everything I've made in one place! I love making art no matter what, and I know that if my PC breaks I will have an easy access to my drawings in various places.
And I'm not sure if you even need social media to sell things if it's that tiring to you, you can contact publishing houses, newspapers, look up on discord or professional websites if someone is looking for an artist, ask friends... I'm sure you will figure something out! I wish you luck in overcoming this feeling

im sorry about that, if it helps, im not being very successful as of late either. i think my instagram account got shadow banned cus of my lack of posting for months at a time, i got like 3 likes on my last post. i had so much engery and excitment towards social media before, which site like that reward. now, though, i can hardly ever be bothered. i agree that it sucks too, it wants you to put in more and more effort for minimal results. like, now you gotta make a whole video ontop of making art... it doesnt help that i never used tiktok so i have no idea how it works.

thats a good idea about treating it as an archive, i kind of do that with itaku which is basically just my portfolio, i dont use it for anything else. its still not very rewarding. i also reach out to people alot, i go on toyhouse soley to find people looking for commissions, to pretty good success. thats just never as special as selling something you truly care about though.. maybe i just need to find a freind and make it a joint effort lol

[Kolo]

Should you really keep pushing yourself to market and post works when you find the idea so exhausting? There's no harm in continuing your break. I know there's constant pressure to perform for algorithms - like, very minute you're not Posting feels like you're slipping back down a slope, but... is it so bad just to have a small website and post there, like you want, and have people authentically wander in and enjoy what you made without the slop of social media? If you don't want to chain yourself to social media, you don't have to.

[KatKing]

Should you really keep pushing yourself to market and post works when you find the idea so exhausting? There's no harm in continuing your break. I know there's constant pressure to perform for algorithms - like, very minute you're not Posting feels like you're slipping back down a slope, but... is it so bad just to have a small website and post there, like you want, and have people authentically wander in and enjoy what you made without the slop of social media? If you don't want to chain yourself to social media, you don't have to.

your not wrong, and i dont want to be in here like "no, actually" because really theres no one solution that would fix everything. i just want to bounce off people i guess. i think apart of it is guilt, like i want to show myself i could do it all again, that i didnt peak at 15 or something. i really did just up and abandon a successful account, something people would give anything for. in the end it was probably the best thing for me, it had served its purpose. but still 

another part of it is i do really want to set up a shop. i like the idea of selling my art. there are alot of cool shops i like. making stickers, dolls, etc, all sound fun. but the actual social media part... not so much. i wish i was still into it so it didnt feel like a chore i guess. i want to feel productive.

as for the website, i do really want to do that, but its just so daunting. im still not the best at coding. im such a perfectionist too, ive made webpages before and i get fixated on one thing that takes hours for me to impliment or fix cus im again not good at coding. i should really just make something simple, but i cant bring myself to.

honeslty it doesnt feel so much a problem of feeling hatred for social media, though i do really dislike most part of it. its more of just a general lack of motivation. theres no joy anymore in sharing my work in any way. i guess ill take that over feeling no joy in creating art by a long shot. but sharing my art used to feel really special to me. i miss that feeling. social media is a lot of bad things but at the end of a day it can be a community, and communities are nice sometimes. i feel like alot of artists end up in that love hate relationship, and its draining.

[Melooon]

i feel excited to make art, ive made lots of art recently, its sharing it that doesnt excite me anymore

Hmmm, maybe thats better! But are they not one in the same? Sharing is part of the artistic process, as much as making the art is; you can make sharing just as exciting too (And I think it should be); you just have to follow the same process you use for making your work.

You say you make dolls; so would you force yourself to make a doll if you felt the same way about it that you do about social media now? ANdd if you did feel that way, what would you do to make the doll exciting again?

I don't actually know whats right of course; these are just the kinda questions Id ask myself if I were in your place!

[KatKing]

Hmmm, maybe thats better! But are they not one in the same? Sharing is part of the artistic process, as much as making the art is; you can make sharing just as exciting too (And I think it should be); you just have to follow the same process you use for making your work.

You say you make dolls; so would you force yourself to make a doll if you felt the same way about it that you do about social media now? ANdd if you did feel that way, what would you do to make the doll exciting again?

I don't actually know whats right of course; these are just the kinda questions Id ask myself if I were in your place!

thats a good way of looking at it, honestly, when a type of art doesnt excite me anymore, i take a break from it. maybe i just need to commit to not sharing my work at all and just focusing the part im into, then i would actually have a backlog to post when i decided to try again

its good to take picutres of my art though so i can see the before and after, espcially when making upcycled dolls. but i just cant be  bothered. it probably doesnt help that i hate using my phone, its a super cheap burner that just Does Not work. i only bring it with me going out, i dont use it. so the idea of finding, charging, and suffering thru the insane gltiches and loading times just to take a picture isnt ideal. i should really get a new phone. but i also like not having a phone. one less thing to be trapped on.


i dont want to be a social media *user*, i still hate tiktok, i dont use it. but with the way the web is right now, thats the way to share your art, if you want a small business at least. maybe i should just give it some more time.  thanks for helping

[bingus_baby]

suffering thru the insane gltiches and loading times just to take a picture isnt ideal.

If I were you, I'd invest in a tiny digital camera! They're not popular anymore, so you can probably find someone who has one lying around, or for really cheap at a thrift store or Ebay! I dug my old one out a while ago since I wanted authentically low-res photos, and in an insane turn of events... This camera that's over 12 years old actually took nice quality photos. What I'm saying is that a cheap old camera might be a cheap and effective replacement to your phone camera! Something like this. But I bet thrift store would have better prices, if you know where to look.

And for the social media posting part, I just stopped caring. I have a few friends who follow me, and I set my profile to private and post for my little bubble. I don't treat it like an art instagram. I use the art as an excuse to post garbage on the other slides. Example, slide one is a thought-out art piece that took me over 10 hours, and slides 2-10 are all insanely unhinged memes I stole from discord. The caption is whatever was bothering me that day, like it being too hot or an annoying coworker, and in between posts I make story posts about annoying or interesting things that happened that day, or videos of birds I saw. I treat the account as a way to communicate to my friends, or to talk to the wall while others watch lmao

You gotta make it fun, and for me that's not taking things too seriously. And you mentioned leaving behind accounts, just fight off the brain worms that tell you to do that. At most, leave the account but not delete it. I have a similar habit, but what's tied me down is having irl friends follow my art account, so now I have reason to not leave. I have an audience I care about. I get not wanting social media at all, as an artist I've been told that I must tend to social media accounts that are professional where I post art, so I can network or some garbage. I am going directly against that!! It's good to have a couple accounts. It's just all about catering it to yourself. I don't want a following, but I also don't want to make art for noone.

Also, have you tried Tumblr? I've used it a lot lately (not for art) and its algorithms are much more comfortable than other sites. Might be slower and harder to get discovered, but I personally enjoy that. Again, I don't want an audience, so the slow, uphill climb seems appealing. You end up with fewer, but more caring followers it seems.

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

Hi KatKing.
Hope you don't mind this, and be aware that I don't mean to pathologize you or your problems:
What you describe in your OP sounds to me much like a depression in the making.
You say you are an artist and have to sell your art to survive. Do you have other sources of income? Do you have parents, or a family that can support you?

If you don't have a applicable income from it at this moment, consider to lay back from social media for a while, and especially from stuff like TikTok and Instagram (these fellows have a army of  psychologists just hired to make you addicted with their dark patterns), both as content creator and consument. There is - although disputed - evidence that the prolonged use of social media can increase the risk or even cause depressions in some cases. Also try to take a step back from the need to market stuff for a while. Maybe this will be enough to help you to overcome your anxieties.

Use the out-time to think about your options, your wishes, and priorities. Weigh your alternatives, and what you want to be.

If things get worse, and especially if you feel strong depletion take medical advice.

Some thoughts about it:
I agree to Melooon who says that creating art is not about selling art, but about the pure process of doing art. If you want to do art, you can do it without having to deal with social media. It will fertilize and often enlighten your days, but it probably won't pay for the bills. If you are lucky, you'll get the money you invest for materials out of it. Most of the artists I encountered can't do this, they pay for being able to go on with their projects and spend their time on it without compensation.

If you want to make a living from selling "art", you'll likely have a stony way ahead. Probably, you'll need to find other sources of income to finance your art for the first few years (one way to allow you a living and to increase your skills might be the production and selling of handicraft, but this will only work out in some situations - often you'll need to get money from entirely else fields). It will help to go into a training for a while (if you hadn't been in one), and it will require you to make compromises that might feel wrong or unfair. And even if you spent money for your projects, go into training and make all deals with the devil that come at hand - there is still no guarantee that it will work out. Consider well if this is how you'll spent your life, and if you can enjoy the art (that you probably love) in this way. Nothing wrong about it when you say "yes", but even if you do want to take this path: Breeding a condition won't help. Step back, reduce your stress, take your time, order your plans and strategies, and search for a way of financing yourself that doesn't harm you in the long run.

One final thing: I can't say if your anxieties can't be dealt with or if they are here to stay. There are artists who are very successful without dealing with their audience. It's no total break, but surely will make things harder.