Yesterday I posted this image on my facebook profile:
Why – The Obvious Answer
There is the obvious answer as to why I’m doing this: Facebook makes us feel bad.
On purpose.
And I’m really rather tired of it.
They know we stay longer if we get agitated. And I don’t want to be agitated.
Long ago I unfriended or muted anyone that posted anything that remotely looked like politics. So my feed was almost all art.
And then something like the slap at the Oscars happens. And suddenly everyone needs an opinion. And in great irony many people share their opinion saying “I don’t really want to get into this but…”
Yeah. Enough.
There will always be another outrageous thing we can all share an opinion that we don’t want to even think about.
I’m out.
The Terrifying Part
While I will indeed deeply miss some of the conversations and connections on facebook. I know that I can connect with these people on email or the phone or – gasp – in person also. So I will survive.
But…
As someone that makes a good chunk of my income from selling online art classes. This decision is absolutely terrifying.
I know that people find me on social media – facebook helps me pay the mortgage.
And that is what facebook is banking on. They want me to believe I need them to connect with my audience. They need me there (they need all of us there) to fuel their algorithms.
They want me to believe there is no other way to survive as an online business. Or human.
And so yes – this is terrifying.
Can I really connect with my audience without facebook? That is something I guess I will find out.
I sure hope so.
Why – The Deeper Reason
Which brings us to the deeper reason I’m deleting facebook.
It was the downfall of my blog. It is so easy to just zip off a quick facebook post vs writing the longer deeper blog article.
I liken this to the difference between entering juried shows – which is a super easy process – just fill out a form – fire off an image and sit and wait. You get in – or you don’t.
Then you move on to the next.
And sure – at the start of an art career this is much harder. But I’ve been doing this 25+ years and now juried group shows are easy peasy.
Problem is – they still take time. Filling out those forms – packing up the art work – etc etc. It took me a full day to ship off the artwork to my latest group exhibition.
So what’s the problem with this? The problem is I want to show my work together. In series – to tell the full story of my artwork.
Building up a body of work- going deeper – saying something bigger than I can say in a single piece. This takes time. And taking breaks to deal with small juried shows interrupts the flow – takes pieces out of the collection.
Sure it’s another line on the resume but in the long run I’m always just thinking about the solo show.
When I set the boundary on only doing 3 juried group shows a year – I was able to devote more of my time to the deeper work I desire.
And that is exactly what getting rid of facebook is about. Getting rid of the easy peasy posting solution forcing me to go to my blog. And to think things through.
To do all the things I wrote about in my last post about returning to how I used to blog.
The Community
I might even turn the comments back on for this blog. Maybe. I kinda like the more personal connection when people email me with their thoughts about my posts and we communicate that way.
I also am loving seeing others return to their blogs. Back in the start of blogging I met many artists through our blogs and we would have conversations back and forth through posts.
Just last week Helen Conway wrote a post responding to my post about the struggle with finding the starting point with this post: Why our strengths can stop us even starting.
Love this sort of connection and I feel it goes deeper than a quick back and forth on facebook. We have to step back a moment and think.
But Why do I have to Delete Facebook to do this
I could very well keep facebook and do exactly as I say here. Write longer posts – connect on a deeper level, etc.
Yes – I could. But I don’t want to. I don’t want to have to practice that level of self control.
Why buy a box of cookies if I want to eat carrots?
It feels GREAT to have decided to close this door. Decreasing options. Clarifying direction.
This is the fundamental building block of what works for me – making decisions about my direction and then making it as easy as possible to go down that path.
And yes – I’m keeping instagram and twitter. Just like I will do a few juried shows a year – I’m setting boundaries on my social media. Some is okay – and I have a lot of clarity on how I use those media.
I would delete twitter also but it is the home of nft conversations (play foreshadowing music here but don’t hold your breath.)
So here we go – in a few days facebook will be going away. And we will see what happens next.