Some time ago I met a talented photographer whom I was already following on Instagram. He was a great chap who’d taken some great street shots. One thing in our conversation really got my attention, though. He said he only takes photos in portrait orientation, so it looks better on Instagram… Now, it’s good that he’s building his own style but take photos in a certain way only because it looks good on Instagram? I think that’s a terrible thing to do.
Social media doesn’t kill your creativity only in that way. Some photographers tend to only try to take photos that they subconsciously know will get a lot of likes on social media. That limits them, limits their creativity and even takes the art element out of their photography. Social media can be a great tool for exposure for one’s work but as a lot of things in life, if you do too much of it, it’ll lead to a negative result. A creative shouldn’t only do the work he knows will get people’s approval on Instagram. They should experiment, take the photo they think transmits a feeling, write the song that expresses their current state. There’s a whole lot of reasons on why doing what your followers will like is terrible for your creativity. If what I mentioned isn’t enough, taking photos you don’t really like means, you’re 9/10 times not going to stand out and are going to do what the crowd does, become a sheep. Not only that but it can lead to a burnout and make you drop your art all together. We don’t want that, do we?
There’s a second aspect on why social media is bad for your creativity. It’s the same reason that social media is a leading cause of depression and anxiety – likes… People tend to think that they’re not attractive enough if their selfie doesn’t get a certain number of likes. Well, same goes for creatives. If your motion graphic doesn’t get over 500 likes, you can end up thinking that it’s not good enough. Well, that’s due to the fact that our brains are hard wired to seek approval. What we don’t usually realized is that there’s a lot of forces at work on social media. You might not have gotten said likes because there might’ve been a change in the algorithm, you might’ve not posted in the right time or your content might have not been shown to the right people. In any case, that shouldn’t affect your self-esteem when it comes to your work (and not only), and it shouldn’t affect the kind of art you do. Your art has to stay an expression of your inner world or a way to raise awareness over a certain topic. One thing is for sure, it should be only yours.
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