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My Social Media Problem

 

 

An artist operating as a sole proprietor is obliged to wear many hats: creator, web designer, photographer, marketer, seller, shipper. Each hat requires time and knowledge, but there's one hat in particular that gets a lot of attention among artists: social media. It's pitched as the best and fastest way to get discovered as a creative, that you might as well be invisible if you're not taking advantage of one or all of the social media platforms, particularly Instagram. And what's so hard about sharing photos, anyway? 

 

Oh, if only it were that simple. Instagram used to be a place where you shared pretty photos and curated a beautiful grid of them on your profile, a lookbook of sorts that people would take their time to peruse, but things have changed. Meta's Instagram wants as many eyeballs as possible scrolling for as long as possible to see as many ads as possible, and they rely on you to provide the right content for their goals.

 

Like most social media platforms, Instagram uses an algorithm, or rules of data processing, to curate content and shape behavior. Content that will keep users engaged gets prioritized: reels get pushed more than photos (to compete with TikTok), carousels do better than singular photos, posts with engagement within the first 30-60 minutes get further reach, and the lifespan of a post in the feed is only about a day. Even your followers won't see your posts if there isn't enough early engagement. Competitive creators learn quickly and post accordingly.

 

Any social media coach will advise a similar post formula: a hook to grab attention, the content, a call to action (buy here, comment below, save this post), and a response from you (replies to comments and messages). Sounds like an interactive ad, doesn't it? There's plenty of additional goal-specific advice out there, but the basic structure remains. It's not surprising that a lot of content starts to look and feel the same when everyone is competing against the same algorithm with similar strategies. 

 

To set ourselves apart, we're told that our content should also be personal and authentic. Those same coaches will say to tell a story, show your face, reveal your process, build trust. Give of yourself, again and again, within this marketing strategy, to bid for a few minutes of the internet's attention, preferably every day. In other words, become a living ad and sell the illusion of connection in an environment that forgets you as soon as you stop waving your arms.

 

Let's be super clear: we're fueling a content machine that is designed to be addictive, a machine that wants to maximize our time and ad exposure. That's the business model. Both content creator and consumer are manipulated in ways that shape mental health, what we value, how we interact with each other, and how we behave in the marketplace. Even when you intend to be yourself as a creator, you end up performing a version of you crafted for a target audience. 

 

So where does this leave me? I'm going to use Instagram the old way, as a lookbook. I'm not going to post every day. I'm not interested in chasing likes, and my stomach turns whenever I try to record a reel. I'm certainly not going to change what kind of art I make. Authenticity is too important to me to pretend at it in an artificial environment, so I'll be dragging my feet. I hope you'll join me.