I've been coagulating some thoughts about social networking and artists and art and stuff. As I sit down here and write, I'm shooting for sweeping meme-worthy generalizations, but mainly it takes a lot of my time and psychic energy to be hooked on social networking. It has been helpful reminding people that I have been creative, have been in the trench and up on stage, and have something to show for it--but all of that is basically yesterday's box score. Bragging isn't good for art, and resting on old work isn't good for art either.
As I've had fun sharing visual art this year, it has been a good fit, in some ways. But overall, I think social networking can end up replacing or undermining creativity. Artists are usually attention-seekers in some way or another, and Facebook satisfies that brain chemical well enough, so why hunker down in solitude or with a group to do the work of making something? What if you miss something on Twitter? Well, making art has always been about missing something because you're busy doing something unique that only you can do. Our world isn't arranged to really encourage that.
On the other hand, Facebook, Twitter, and Instragram can be artful, can be weird, and can be creative and political--so this isn't a manifesto statement. One of the things that truly blows me away about Facebook is that people are writing again. The folks in high school who struggled through composition class are writing 500 word essays in comment sections. People are arguing, using rhetorical strategies. (Some toxic and mean). People who don't write letters are writing long letters to each other in real time. It would be really elitist to say social networking is not a valid creative outlet or means for interesting discourse or staying in touch.
It became really clear after the election of 2016 that automated bot-think really made a difference. I decided I'd post something original every day in my blog--which is a quaint backwater, relative to a Tweet-storm that lasts half a news cycle. I pretty well held to it and saw my blog traffic jump up by a really high percentage. Fast, off-the-cuff visual art is fun, short circuits my tendancy to ruminate, and is easy to share, unlike making an album. I kind of want people to know there's a place they can visit in the digital world where there's always something authentic going on even if it is silly.
I also want to be really aware of the addiction of social networking, and enjoy time with my guitar and pen and notebook again. I have, at this point, like a hundred albums worth of cover art.
