Art and creativity beyond social media
The impacts of consciously consuming, creating, and sharing art
It was the day after the inauguration that made me log off of social media and made me reconsider how much I was contributing to those platforms.
I watched the world’s richest man stand behind the United States presidential seal and give an enthusiastic sieg heil to cameras that were broadcasting around the world. The next day social media discourse wasn’t talking about what we are going to do next to combat this destructive, xenophobic, and authoritarian regime. Instead, I was fed debates around what that quirky hand gesture could be, that he could have meant something else by it, that it could be an unknown character trait.
This is a man that’s been espousing hate on his own social media platform and publicly supporting far-right groups through financial support and changing twitter to bend to his warped world view. His nazi salute shouldn’t have been met with a disingenuous questioning of what his intent could be and should have started a genuine discourse of what we as a nation will do now that the world’s richest man was clearly seen behind the presidential seal giving a clear nazi salute and what that means for all of us moving forward.
This was a time where someone’s symbolic gesture clearly aligned with their years of actions, yet, in real time we could see how the discourse online was shifting to give doubt to what was so clear that we all saw with our own eyes. It was a direct shot to make me to not want to continue contributing my own life story to platforms that could so clearly be manipulated to benefit the authoritarian regime and billionaire class at large.
I uninstalled Facebook and Instagram from my phone.
Living life beyond social media
The first week that I logged off of Facebook and Instagram there was that draw to open up either service to see what my friends were up to. However, I was genuinely surprised how much easier than I thought it would be to put it down and keep off of my personal devices that were always on me. It was easier, in my opinion, because these interactions I wanted to have with friends, to either see their life updates or to share mine, could still be done without social media.
In turning off these services I found myself communicating more with the people I cared about. I made time to text or catch up with them in person in more detail when we were together. I got more nuance to what my friends were thinking about than I could get through a mass sanitized social media share. It felt like I was given an opportunity to tap into our IRL social networks of the past.
To me, what was the most surprising was being aware of how often my thoughts of using my art form of photography were wrapped in a container of how I was going to end up posting these images to social media. Without that need anymore, it felt like there was a whole new untapped potential to my creativity now that I didn’t put my work into a container of a Facebook post or Instagram story. It was creativity just for the sake of it again.
If I would have asked myself before, who are you creating this for? I likely would have answered, myself. But looking back on it, I don’t think that answer would have been completely true. Now I’m starting to see a clearer picture of how my decades of social media usage has infiltrated my own sense of creativity and community more objectively.
I went to Japan recently on an invite from my younger sister to join her on her NAVY ship, and without looming thoughts of sharing content to social media I felt that I could experience more, take more time to capture what I was seeing, and have more time for my own thoughts to wander through my previous experiences of visiting Japan more frequently a decade ago when I was a much different individual than I am today.
When I returned home I loved the experience of sitting down with my friends and loved ones and walking them through my experiences through my photography and videos that I collected on my iPad. I wasn’t limited in sharing what I experienced in some sort of pre defined format and what I found was that although I was sharing my journey with a much smaller subset of friends the quality of those interactions was so much more fulfilling than any collection of comments to a post could create.
Taking up space with my own art
There is still a part of me that misses sharing my art, my adventures, and my thoughts with a more generalized audience. Is that something that I want just based on years of doing it, or is it something desired within the human condition?
Some thoughts I’m working through with my therapist these days
It’s this thought that has had me thinking about re-activating this substack for a few months now but I never felt quite called to jump back in until this morning when I watched the following TED talk.
I was knowledgeable before of my want to share my art and my creativity, but this talk helped to share a perspective that it shouldn’t just be done for yourself but for the betterment of those around you.
Watching this talk connected a lot of the dots of what I was feeling internally. Amie solidifies the impact of spending time creatively and sharing the resultant art isn’t just for enjoyment, but it’s a missing pillar of self development and leaves a lasting positive impact on our culture at large.
We have to understand that art is activism. That it is inherently political to use your voice and take up space with whatever it is that you’re making.
Legislation and policy is important, but I am moved by art, and the culture is moved by art. We are impacted at a very human level when we consume creations. It is political, you can change the world with your art, use your creations to seek the change you want in this world.
Making art is activism.
So here I am and here we are together, exploring creativity in an ever increasingly challenging time and society around us.
I wish I could say definitively that I will stick to this platform, that I’ll share my art and thoughts more consistently, but I think at least right now I can feel comfort in taking up more space for my own art through a mechanism that isn’t owned by the richest men in the world.
And that, in and of itself, is enough for today and this months long journey I’ve been on recently.