Social Media and Watercolor - How to Become Unstoppable

Social media platforms, in many ways, offer artists opportunities that were non-existent even fifteen years ago. I have my own story about how attention from social media carved out a new life for me as an artist (refer to video). 

So I'm not here to tell you to abandon these sites altogether. However, it's important that we are alert to the ways that social media is changing and the ways it is more and more distracting to our creative goals. 

What are the Characteristics of Social Media?

First things first - it's helpful to define the characteristics of today's social media platforms. They are not what they were five years ago - not even what they were a year ago. The algorithms are constantly being tweaked. New features are frequently added. And the ratio of people you follow to recommended content creators changes all the time too.

The goal of these tech companies is really simple: to keep your attention, and they do a great job of it. 

For all of it's benefits, we have to face the reality that social media is:

• Never-ending: infinite scroll is a highly-addictive design feature that transformed the way people interact online. 
• Fast-moving: the time you're spending with one piece of content is degraded by the anticipation of something new and different with the flick of a wrist.
• Obsessed with NOW: new content is king!
• Never satisfied: finding success on social media requires feeding its appetite for new content; the problem is, it's insatiable.
• Impersonal: The people you know in real life are less and less the focus of the tech companies' algorithms.

Like it or not, these characteristics keep the attention of users. But the best ways to keep people's attention, unfortunately, have proven to be harmful to our mental health, our focus, and our ability to cultivate creativity in our lives.  

How Does Social Media Threaten Creativity?

For our purposes today, let's focus in on that last part - the way that social media threatens our creativity. As I see it, there are three major impacts social media has on us as artists:

1. It places us in a vulnerable spot that encourages comparison.  

Comparison is impossible to avoid - on and off line. But the tricky thing about the online world is that you are exposed to everyone else's "highlight reel" without the context of the rest of their life (or the painting they did the day before that didn't come together). 

It is easy to find yourself looking at the paintings that other artists have deemed worthy to be posted (likely their best work) and compare it to the disappointing painting you just finished. We all have those paintings - we just don't always post them.

Similarly, it's tempting to flip through watercolor after watercolor of experienced artists and forget that they've been painting for decades. 

2. It degrades our ability to slow down, notice, and observe.

It's said that attention is our most valuable currency. Truly, what we pay the most attention to in our lives is what is going to flourish. Think of the format of the information you consume online. If you're constantly watching short clips, one after the other, you're training your brain to think in short spurts, to need constant reward and frequent changes. This degrades your attention span and damages your capacity for sustained observation. As an artist, you need these skills!

3. It can reiterate and "confirm" our negative beliefs about ourselves.

Even the best artist deals with some amount of self-doubt or imposter syndrome. And unfortunately, when we encounter evidence that suggests these feelings are valid (like everyone else's beautiful paintings), we internalize this evidence as "proof" that we are correct. This is called confirmation bias. 

Confirmation bias is at work all the time, online and in the real world, but it's particularly pernicious on social media, where we often consume information rapidly and without a whole lot of time to question whether the way we're interpreting something is valid (because we're on to the next thing). This creates an environment where comparison can really do damage to your confidence and motivation.

But don't worry - I have some suggestions for you!

How To Approach Social Media with Intentionality

As an antidote to the three dangers of social media outlined above, I'm going to offer you three suggestions to reorient your relationship with social media as an artist.

Here are 3 healthier approaches to social media for the modern artist:

1. Use Social Media on Your Own Terms.

The default way to use one of these many platforms is through its app, on your smartphone, with notifications turned on. If you are unhappy with the amount of time you're spending on the apps or with the way they make you feel, first try to redefine the terms of your relationship with social media.

Maybe these suggestions will help: 

• Take the app off your phone and only access the site on your computer.
• Turn notifications off.
• Give yourself a time limit to be on the app.
• Express an intention around getting on before you open up the site (i.e. "I'm logging on to post this painting and to check in on three of my friends").
• Dive into the settings of the site and curate your feed so that it better serves your purposes. 

Take one of these suggestions or all of them - whatever makes these online platforms more healthy for you. 

2. Check in with yourself after a session on one of these sites.

There is a reason tech executives don't let their own children use their applications. They know how damaging they can be - to kids, sure, but to adults too. 

One way to counter this, apart from logging off altogether, is to bring a heightened awareness around how your use of the app makes you feel. After you log off, just do a quick check in. Do you feel better than you did before or worse? Is there a particular reason for this change? Is there an activity that would help balance you out after using the app? 

Sometimes I find that I use social media to distract myself from things that would be healthier for me. Other times, I enjoy my time on the sites and have positive feelings about my experience. There is definitely a range of experiences you can have, but introducing intentional self-awareness to your social media usage will help you prioritize your personal goals. 

3. AMB - Always Measure Backward

This is a concept I gleaned from the book The Gap and the Gain, which I can't recommend enough. AMB, simply put, is learning to compare yourself, not to your ideal, but to a former version of you. Where were you when you first started learning watercolor? Where are you now? That is the comparison that matters and the comparison that can inspire continued growth.

Instead of obsessing over where you are in "the art world," spend time reflecting on your gains. Spend time noticing the ways you are growing and succeeding. 

Especially when those thoughts of comparison creep up while you're online, remind yourself to "always measure backward." 

Use Social Media; Don't Let it Use You

Platforms are constantly changing and trying out new ways to keep our attention. It's what makes tech companies money, and we have to always remember that this is their goal.

When we lose sight of what we want social media to be for us, we end up exchanging our attention for less focus, creativity, and satisfaction.

If you want to use social media for exposure, connection, and inspiration - great! But make sure you put some guardrails in place to ensure it remains a positive environment for you. 

Next Week's Topic

Next week, I'm going to get into another intuitive practice.

I'm going to be talking about how to paint figures: how to keep them in perspective in your scenes, and how to really simplify this thing that can feel so overwhelming.

So make sure you're subscribed so you receive emails when I post my videos!

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