Semi Social (media) now?

To help promote the publishing of my book of illustrations, Flexible, I decided to take a leap into social media. Instagram was my choice as it seemed to have more creative possibilities and I knew some people already on it who might follow me and hopefully spread the word to their followers. 

I have a few followers on Flickr and some of my works gets 1000s of looks and many get at least a few hundred looks. This isn’t a lot for social media posts these days but it’s something. I have quit Flickr several times over the years as its membership has changed. At first there was a bit of feedback and opinions from other like minded artists. People discussed techniques and  often had helpful critiques. I have more looks these days but pretty much zero communication. A "look" isn’t social to me or all that helpful in of itself, nice that it is to know people are seeing your work - that is all it tells you. YouTube is a place I have used for decades now and some of my videos, again get a couple thousands hits - over time - but I have something like 8 followers and occasionally an interesting comment. 

This is where Instagram comes into the picture. My reluctance and distaste for social media is well known, I’ve written about here on a regular basis. Although it seems everyone and their brother is social media famous these days, the fact is very few people are and even fewer are for good reasons - like for people liking their work. Still this book meant a lot to me and things change so I am giving it a try. 

Having only been on it a couple months I can say so far my opinion has not changed. I have gathered a few followers, some are people who didn’t know me before but still no copies of the book have sold from it and no one has requested prints or offered a commission. It’s work to keep it going, you have post often and take the time to write your description and format your images. Time that could be spent drawing or working on something. I do get see some posts from friends I had otherwise been unable to see and have seen some nice art from other artists. My friend Jesus has helped me with setting things up and giving me advice. He swears I need to show myself which I do not want to do, it’s a business account and I want it to stay that way. I have shown images I have drawn on my dog and other things and mention the personal connection in my description and Jesus recommended that I at least do some video reels and posts to get more attention so I did that. I added my instagram to my business card, blog sites and portfolio page hoping someone might be curious and stumble onto it. So I AM trying to reach out but so far its not worth the effort. I plan on doing it for a year at least since you never know what will happen and putting the effort in but I am not too confident that I will be still on the platform by this time next year.

I have been going down rabbit holes to see what else in on there and what gets attention… it’s pretty banal and dreadful. I have no desire to walk out in nothing but a towel, jump up and do a fast cut to me fully dressed and NO ONE wants to me to either! I don’t want to film my dog doing something innocuous and put a "funny" caption on it. There is so much boring repetition on social media masquerading as cleverness and the shrill screams for attention, no matter how cute you are or how many rows of abs you have it just make my eyes roll. It’s fine if others like the stuff and want or need to do it but feeling pushed into doing it out of desperation seems not a little pathetic of me to be honest. Needing 10 000 followers just to post links puts this basic business tool out of reach not just for me but for maybe 90% of the people I see on Instagram. The constant urging to get a Facebook account to "cross promote" is really annoying and I REALLY do not want to go there. 

Maybe Gus Kenworthy will follow me and decide what’s missing from his life is an older Montreal guy who can draw. Maybe I will suddenly gets traction or go viral or whatever the kids do these days and get a following beyond my wonderful family and friends. I won’t shy away from that but I have a feeling I still won’t like doing any of this any more than I do now.

Yes I'm still anti-social

Seems like every four years I update my status about how I feel about social networks and related topics so  - its that time again!

I still don't have a cell phone. Good, now that's out of the way and you've picked yourself off the floor...

I still look into social networks and media as possible ways to promote my work, get work or keep in touch with people. So I'm not, nor have I ever, been one of those social media is evil and none should ever use it, think of the children! sort of people.

This past year in particular I have tried to get more out of my You-tube account as I go there often for reviews and tutorials as well as put my films on it. Maybe my interests are just too narrow, but I don't get why anyone wants to see and hear strangers tell them about their lives etc. It's become a huge money maker for some of these influencers as I think they call them. They are literally legends in their living rooms. I have NO IDEA how to drive people to look at my videos there but I do feel lucky that I don't get attention from many who leave comments, I've read a few on other channels audit's pretty dismal stuff.

Vimeo on the other hand has easy ways to add subjects you like to your feed (animations, Montreal etc) and I get some hits there for my work. Sadly they charge for loading more than 5 gig of videos now and I simply can't afford any fees. I doubt I would get more attention if I did pay.

Google+ seems to be going away for everyday people, many who already assumed it's been gone for years now. You are gifted an account just by using gmail and I was sort of pressured to trying it for a work project and it never worked out.

I use Flickr to put my photos and drawings online and I have more luck there getting seen. Occasionally, I get some comments and likes but it hasn't really done much for me professionally.

Which bring me to LinkedIn, a service everyone and their brother seems to want o me to join. When I ask if any of them have ever got a job offer from the site, the response is always no so far. What good is it then? It's a job networking site, non? It must work for some but I haven't found them yet.

Facebook and Twitter the big fish in this pond really just turn me off. Getting news from either has always seemed like a really bad idea. They do have potential uses and I know it's a great way to get those photos of the kids to relatives all over the world without having to send them all emails and the messaging system seems to be pretty popular but I really don't have use for those things too much.

The privacy concerns and problems that keep coming up are another reason I can't buy into to the social network trends. I just don't want to send my personal information to every company that wants to try and sell me things or potentially put my identification out there to be stolen. Not that I have anything anyone would want to take. I don't see interactions I like or desire to have on this sites either. I'd love to talk about photography or animation or get constructive feedback, but a "like" button isn't any of those things. I don't need attention for attention's sake and I haven't seen any sign it would help me get work. I think the ship has sailed on those early days when there weren't another 2 billion people on these services.

If money wasn't such an issue, I might get a cell phone to replace my land line at some point. Just for the convenience of if and safety on long bike rides. I am perfectly happy with my iPad right now with wifi for communicating out of the house/office. even if I eventually do get a cell phone I can't imagine I'd be carrying it around too often.

I have to say I don't still feel like I'm missing out on much. I have lost friends who won't communicate unless it is through Facebook, but I am still here, in real life, with email, mailbox and a phone number should they change their minds. In the meantime, Have projects to work on and people to see - in the real world.

Still anti-social

I have been using the Google + app for a while now, trying to give it a shot and find some sort of usefulness for it. It's not working out very well.

I decided to follow several groups, mostly science and sci-fi stuff and while I didn't expect to like even ½ of the postings there, it is all the other crap Google forces me to look at that really gets me angry. I know not many people (relatively) use Google + but I find it impossible to believe that stock photos of flowers or rivers are "popular on google" by any definition of popular. They also force you to receive posts from discussions you have no interest in, like "caturday" gifs. The only thing you can do is mark things as spam or ignore the post. I find I do both of those actions a hell of a lot more than I read posts I've actually requested to see. I did complain several times that being forced to see full screen images with horrible graphics proclaiming "Jesus is Lord" every 3 posts is verging on criminal harassment. What algorithm decided I wanted to see that? It's insulting.

The amount of tacky "funny"gifs is another issue, who posts these things? I have a feeling it's Google itself trying to puff up how many people are using the service. At least I hope it's Google and there really aren't that many mentally deficient people online making these insipid images and posting them 100 times a day for all to see. Opening the app is like the end of Clockwork Orange but instead of being forced to watch violence until it makes us vomit, we are forced, with no option otherwise, to have religious, love and "funny" gifs burned into our defenceless minds.

The saddest thing is the structure of the app is not terrible and works fairly well. If they want to have people use it, there needs to be more control over what comes in and ways to not just "+" things but "minus" them as well. There is a lot of bad information and abusive people, as with all social media, but no way for the community at large to control the abuses.

I do not use anything other social networks (Facebook included) and I imagine they aren't much better. As it is I am looking for ways to limit my use of even this service as much as possible. The annoyances still outweigh any benefits in my view.

Anti Social (Network) behavior

I am, by nature, not a very social person so anything I say on this subject should be taken in that light. I have also been someone who embraced the new technologies and the internet from the very start. I had a «car phone», which was later a cell phone. Yes, at first there wasn’t much battery life in a portable phone despite the fact they were the size of a handbag they needed your car battery to keep you talking more than a few minutes. I was also on various profile driven sites, AOL chat, even «Friendster». I still like video chat and meeting new people that way, just no where near as much as I used to. I no longer have a cell phone (which sends most people into a fit of confusion).

As these social networks expanded and took over more and more of people’s lives I’ve found them to be the exact opposite of social. «MySpace» and «Facebook» for example give you the ability to post your activities, photos and thoughts to all your «friends» in one space at the same time. Sounds good, except there is nothing social about it. It’s no more social than writing a message on a wall on a street many people you know, and many more you don’t, pass by every day. You’ve managed to transmit personal information without any social contact whatsoever. People can know the details of your life, but not you. It’s like an interactive form letter some send out yearly. Sure it gives everyone information they might be interested in knowing but it eliminates the most important part... that the information comes from interacting with you as a real person and in person. As a result we see the real skills of socializing in groups or even one on one in the physical world suffering. I’d much rather get a short email sent from a friend to me and get feedback from the email. Better yet, a phone call or visit now and then would be nice. I still write and recieve letters sent by post now and then, it’s quite pleasant to get a letter in the mail from someone you like.

The «electronic text only» way of communicating leaves out all emotions. A cartoon happy face does not take the place of a real smile and it’s just plain impossible to tell someone’s state of mind, even if they are happy or sad from what you are reading most of the time. It is far too easy to interpret things according to your mood at the moment and not as the sender intended.

I don’t knock these avenues of communication as useless, just overused and a lazy and even cowardly way to interact. I can’t tell you how many times recently an old pal I have lost contact with has has asked for my «Facebook» page, not to get back in touch, but merely to increase their «friends» list numbers. Me, I’d rather stick to my small circle of real life friends than have 1000’s of impersonal contacts that don’t talk to me personally but to the nameless crowd, many of whom they’ve never met.