I recently recreated a few social media accounts for strictly promotions.
I’ll be the first person to admit that I’m not very good at using social media. Some people can use it successfully.
For most people, it’s a waste of time. Big time.
I deleted my social media accounts awhile back because they were time sinks. I had so many people who for some reason just loved to waste my time.
“Look at this!”
How about no. I’m busy.
You know how many hours you need to put in for each piece of art you create. I’ve had an art gallery owner estimate that twenty hours is about average. Or at least that’s what he told me.
Maybe you can whip out something faster than that. Maybe it takes you twice as long.
Whatever the case, imagine if you wasted two, three, or even four hours a day on social media. Hours that you could have been getting shit done.
I don’t think there’s anyone out there who’s 100% time efficient. Everyone needs rest. Everyone needs to eat. And everyone needs to sleep.
You also need to give your brain a rest. I definitely know I do.
I have to get up sometimes and sit in the sun for about 15-20 minutes. That to me is the ultimate refresher – the sun. And it’s free.
You feel great afterwards too. There’s something about sunlight that simply makes you feel better.
Social media on the other hand…
The last time I deleted a certain social media app, I had a guy who would send me videos daily. I didn’t even know him. Yet for some reason, he was always trying to show me what he thought were entertaining videos.
And the thing is, most of them were time wasters.
Now, if he sent me videos on how to improve some of my skill sets, that’s entirely different.
To this day, I still love music. I still play both guitar and piano. My best friend from high school still sends me guitar videos and I actually watch those.
But these were just time wasting videos. Videos where at the most, you might get a laugh. At worst, you lose your train of thought when working on a piece.
I was initially reluctant to start my social media accounts back up. My business consultant though insisted that if you use them correctly, they’re beneficial.
Remains to be seen.
Phone addictions are a real thing
Last year, we were on a dinner cruise ship in Romania. The top floor had some genuinely beautiful people.
But people I definitely wouldn’t want to trade lives with.
These people, instead of having a great time on the dinner cruise ship, were just taking selfies on the ship to look cool. All dressed up for social media.
Were they talking to each other? Were they meeting other people?
No. Literally just taking selfies for social media. Then as soon as they put their phones down, their fake smiles would turn into frowns.
It was almost like a psychology class on the sadness of being fake.
Then downstairs on the ship, a band called 3 Sud Est started playing. They were a popular Romanian band all the way back from 1997 (and still active today).
Their fans were mostly Gen X or older Millennials, and the fans were having a great time. Way better time than the phone selfie people on the top deck.
Why?
Because they put their phones away and danced.
Phone addictions and social media addictions can definitely ruin a potential artist. Some folks say the number one enemy of an artist is obscurity. I’d agree that that’s up there, but nowadays, I’d argue that it’s not producing enough works.
I’m not against all social media but I’m well aware that it can be poisonous for an artist, due to the simple fact that you can waste hours on social media and get nothing done.
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