Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram…
social networks are virtual squares where people meet to talk, argue and exchange funny pictures. Every day billions of people spend some of their time (or all of it, depending on the case) on these platforms, which have become increasingly necessary especially among teenagers.
Social networks can be used in various ways, ranging from having a quiet chat to spreading fake news to create panic. Some instead use it as bulletin boards or galleries to showcase their hobby. On Facebook, for example; it is possible to create themed groups in which people can share a common passion for a video game, a famous actor or simply to provide specific advice.
For many people, they are also places to launch their craft businesses and shop windows to display their products. There is no limit to what you can sell, just create a special page and that's it. Simple, isn't it? Well, at least up to this point, it is.
The real difficult part is then being able to get noticed in the vast digital market, demonstrating that you have quality products and a marked innovation that attracts the customer.
Freelance artists take advantage of social media a lot.
Being able to show off your work and get reactions is one of the first steps to fame.
But it's not enough just to publish something, it takes perseverance and ingenuity for visitors to continue to follow and support us.
And if we do art for work, the commitment multiplies.
Well yes, as difficult as it is to believe, it is possible to make a living from art… but this is the subject for another article.
Someone will think it is easy for an artist, as they only has to draw and type a couple of words on the computer.
Well, this is very wrong!
Just as a clothing store launches promotions on items for sale, so should a freelancer. How does he do it? Discounts, advertisements, constant alerts, project presentations… anything that catches the attention of customers.
Managing all of these aspects is the most stressful thing in the world and social media itself isn't much help, when it comes to it. The social algorithms are the first big problem: with the term social algorithm we mean a series of mathematical rules, applied to social networks, able to show the public results based on certain actions.
Whether it's clothing, articles, videos, or whatever else you're looking for on social media, algorithms can be useful for matching the best content to your interests. This helps you waste less time on social media and spend more time on the information that fascinates you.
But this aspect is also the problem; as they almost always give us substandard results and often only show us the trends and solutions they want to propose and that's not what we really want.
In fact, especially for an artist, this will also mean that many of their posts or works will not even appear in the search results, greatly limiting the chances of being noticed. It seems that using certain or hashtags increases the chances of the algorithm ignoring you.
Almost as if it didn't like them.
The solution would be to be able to become “viral” enough (or famous, so to speak) so that the attention on us increases accordingly. But it's easier for chocolate to start raining. How can you find success if the medium itself is not helping you? How can a person be able to improve their business if they are not allowed to get noticed? It is therefore forced to place ads, advertise jobs, spam everywhere to let people know that we exist ... in short, we are left to ourselves and do the work that would be up to the machine.
In the end, one wonders if it's worth it. If spending hours and hours trying to increase your views is really going to help us achieve something.
And then there is the negativity, the tiredness, the problems of life and many other things that overlap together and that make it impossible to work lightly. Let alone when the storm of quarrels, offenses or universal pessimism breaks out on social media that make even a few minutes of surfing the web a real hell, even if they are not directed to us.
Sometimes the stress is so much that you have to literally unplug.
Off the internet and even your computer, let's have a nice hot tea and a dip under the warm blankets now that the cold is intensifying. Let's forget for a moment the negativity that hovers on our screen or work commitments and dedicate time to take care of ourselves, rebuilding our physical and mental serenity.
Taking a breather from this environment is not at all wrong, not even when work is involved. I understand that it is important to keep commitments so that finances do not go down, but working with tension on us only risks compromising us and I assure you that it happens more often than you think. Just to give an example: I was recently stressed out with my job and completely forgot to make a design for a client. Fortunately, this person who had already commissioned me some works in the past, was not offended by my forgetfulness, on the contrary; they even asked me if I was okay. But if it had been someone else, I most likely would have gotten a bad lecture and I would have given myself some bad publicity.
In these cases, I have slowed down the pace to be able to recover.
A lot of people I follow decided to voluntarily step away from social media, either to take a short break… or to not have to have anything to do with them anymore. There are those who stay away for a short time, others more than a year, and those who disappear completely because they no longer have to bear such a burden. More reasonable reason, if every day you are forced to get nervous.
These places will also have allowed us to find old friends and make new ones, but it is not always worth staying there if we then have to witness the abysses of the human psyche.
So I repeat it: get away from the web without guilt.
Enjoy your hobbies and the people around you, regardless of how long it takes you to do it.
Only when your batteries are charged again, return to the attack stronger than before and show the people of social networks how determined and combative you are with your work, your charisma and your determination.
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