No one cares what you do… and that’s good
Maybe I sound like, but I don’t want to be negative in this article, nor do I want to put your morale to some test, or undermine the meaning of the things you do.
Quite the opposite, actually.
I’d like you, after reading this text, to sit back comfortably (you can do it before reading as well) and breathe a sigh of relief. To realize just how free you really are. Because if you live in a country free of war or oppressive, authoritarian systems, then you are free.
There is a little but.
But you are as free as you allow yourself to be.
Unfortunately, if you are an internet user, and especially a social media user (with an emphasis on Instagram), I assume that you are giving away your freedom for free (and in fact, someone else is even making a serious business out of it).
Almost every artist/maker these days feels the need to share their work on social media. You too, right?
But does sharing your work really makes any sense?
Instagram has more than 2 billion active users.
How many of them do you think actually care about your work? Like really, really care. Enough to regularly check your profile hoping you’ve posted something new. Enough to buy your work when you put it up for sale. Enough to DM you saying, “Great job, man, this is awesome.”
10 percent of your followers? 1 percent? 2 people?
And what happens when there isn’t a sufficient number of likes under your post (note that this is a moving target, and experience shows that this number is never enough), and your follower count hasn’t moved for several days?
Does the apathy kicks in suddenly, and you start doubting whether what you do even makes sense?
Or maybe you begin scrolling through your old posts, analyzing which content (I’ve got you - content!) got more engagement. So you quickly build a strategy and a plan for the coming days, posting things in a similar tone, guaranteeing yourself a number of likes that will just enough tickle your brain’s reward center.
Don’t sell your freedom
Artists all over the world, across centuries, have fought against censorship, fought for freedom of speech, often paying for it with total or temporary exclusion from the art world, lack of sales, poverty, and hunger.
And today you’re giving up your freedom for a handful - or dozens, or hundreds - of likes (be aware: appetite grows with eating). For a bunch of copy-paste comments. For the illusion that someone really cares about what you do.
You compromise your creativity in hopes of winning mercy from the algorithms.
And even if - let’s assume hypothetically - the number of likes is satisfying, does it really motivate you to grow?
Does every comment make you get back to work, or do you just sit there frozen, staring at the notifications appearing on your phone?
And honestly, this isn’t particularly unique, nor even strange - and if you do it - please stop blaming yourself for it.
Because to win against teams of product managers, psychologists, engineers, designers, data scientists, who implement strategies that manipulate human behavior using likes, follows, comments option, you’d need a spine (or balls) of steel.
But it’s not impossible.
Fuck it and go making for yourself
And what if - fuck it - instead of begging for more attention and validation, you just shut yourself off from the world for a while and did your thing?
The same way you would’ve done it before the invention of computers and the idea that all forms of creative or artistic activity MUST be shared with the world and the world MUST express some opinion about them?
Just think about it. Since nobody (except your girlfriend and your mom maybe) really cares about what you’re doing anyway, you can finally start doing things just for yourself.
The story of Vivian Maier, an extraordinary photographer who, in between working as a nanny, shot thousands of rolls of film, shows that it is possible - and maybe even necessary - to cultivate your craft without anyone knowing, and therefore without the pressure of outside judgment.
Maier photographed even when she could no longer afford to develop her film rolls. Over 100,000 negatives were only discovered after her death. They turned out to be phenomenal, and while on the one hand, it’s sad to think that she remained unnoticed during her lifetime, on the other hand - it was probably a conscious decision that deeply shaped her work. Or at least left it free from external influences.
Cherish your freedom
This is the purest form of creative freedom: to not depend on anyone’s opinion, to not try to meet anyone’s demands or expectations. To not crave praise or pats on the back - just to do your thing for the sake of doing it.
Fuck it all and do it for yourself. In the end, you’re the one who gains the most from it.
Don’t get me wrong. Audience matters! But creating anything, especially art, really makes sense only when you do it for yourself in the first place.
Otherwise, instead of gaining a lot, you’ll gain absolutely nothing - and you may even lose a great deal forever.
Photographer! I created a guide (well, a mini-course is a better word), which will help you make more compelling, clean pictures.
It includes a little bit of theory, example images and practical tips/exercises.
Do you want to start making minimalistic, clean images that stand out? That guide is for you. And yes, it’s FREE.