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Why I quit social media

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Taking a break from social media, and then deleting my accounts entirely, had a huge impact on my life and business. If you have recently questioned your use of social media, or want to quit social media, you need to read this article from an artist’s perspective.

Here’s the video version of this post:

Why I quit social media - my advice for artists and creatives

If you can’t see the video above, watch it here: Why I quit social media as an artist – my advice for creatives

How I got started with social media

A few years back when I started sharing my art online, I was reading a lot about how to present it, and inevitably I saw advice that you should share your work on social media. So I started social media accounts and tried to build my following there.

I put a lot of time and energy into it. At that point, I thought it couldn’t hurt to be known as many people as possible. And social media seemed like the answer to that. It certainly kept me busy. Keeping up with making posts and the latest trends meant a lot of work with very little results, especially in the beginning. It also meant being up to date what others were doing. This took away time from me making art and learning new things, so basically the things that I wanted to do in the first place. But it also felt sort of relaxing, to keep scrolling through this feed of other people’s work, and I told my self it was inspiring.

At some point though I realized to keep up with all these social media activities you basically have to be a one-person media company at the same time. You have to market yourself constantly. But everyone in the creative industry (and other industries, too) subscribed to this opinion, whether they saw success from it or not.

The negative impacts of social media

After a few years of doing this, I recently came to the conclusion that I really don’t want to be on social media. I find it more important to spend time getting better at my art, and I can’t do that when I have to think of these platforms that demand daily attention. It’s not that I don’t like to connect with people, and it‘s not that I find marketing useless (it isn‘t!), but I like to do it in a more personal and effective way than social media can provide. For me, social media is just not worth the time I have to put into it. It might have its benefits, but for me there are not enough benefits when I weigh in the negative impacts.

One of these negative impacts is that being active on social media slowly (or even instantly?) took away my ability to focus and to block out distractions when I was working: focusing on my art, writing, acquiring new skills and knowledge, and teach all of it in an effective way. This process of deep concentration is what author and computer sciences professor Cal Newport describes as „Deep Work“ in his book of the same title.

He defines deep work as: professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.

The ability to do deep work is – I think – one of the most important things for people who are creative and who want to earn money with their creativity, so for any working artist. Also for anyone else who works with his brain. If you want to create things and cultivate this ability to search for things in yourself, and to put them on the page or on the canvas or wherever you want to put them, you need to have the ability to concentrate and to focus. You need the ability to sit down for long periods of time without getting interrupted.

I noticed that when I was using social media, I was very distracted and not really able to focus on the things that mattered to me. I was becoming more scatterbrained and anxious, and it became harder for me to focus on hard things, like reading difficult texts or writing and drawing for long periods of time – things I used to enjoy. Instead I was drawn back to check my profiles all the time. From what I’ve been reading and hearing from others, this doesn’t just happen to me, but to a lot of people who use social media regularly. Maybe you’ve experienced it, too?

They keep you coming back to distract you

That‘s because social media companies use a mechanism that rewards distraction, to keep you coming back. They need you to spend time on the platforms so you can see the ads that their customers pay for. So every time you check your profile and see likes or comments popping up, you get a dopamine hit, not unlike a dog who hears the bell and starts to salivate. So what do you do? Of course you hit reload, or keep checking your profile all the time. The distraction is built in, and it’s especially nasty in combination with a smartphone, that device you always have with you and that can even pull you out of a phase of deep concentration with a notification sound. This is actually something that these companies took from took from digital slot machine designers (you can read about this in Cal Newport’s new book „Digital Minimalism“ and also in Jaron Lanier’s book „Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now“ – all recommendations are listed at the end of this article).

I don’t want to put social media and tech companies necessarily into a bad light, although I sure would have some critical questions for them and there are a lot of very questionable decisions they’ve made (and still make). For example, these addictive mechanisms were consciously built into their apps – although we don’t even know how it will affect our brains in the long run. I know they already have affected me in a very bad way after a short while. Sean Parker, Facebook’s former president, has stated their platform was “exploiting vulnerability in human psychology”. You can exchange Facebook with any of the other social networks here. The computer scientist and computer philosopher Jaron Lanier describes this mechanism with the following acronym: „Behavior of users modified, made into an empire for rent – BUMMER.“ It sounds funny and almost harmless, but what this mechanism stands for quickly turns into something far more sinister if you take a look at the recent documentary „The Great Hack“ which takes a closer investigative look at the Cambridge Analytica incident.

Why artists need to steer clear of distraction

But back to the artist who keeps getting distracted by social media. What‘s obvious is that these distractions diminish our ability to go into focused work states. They also change our relationship to attention. As for me, I was constantly thinking of how I can produce more content for someone’s feed. Do you notice the wording here? The kind of thinking these companies have introduced (particularly for members of the creative industry, because they produce the most beautiful pieces of content out there) is not only time-consuming and distraction-inducing, it‘s a downright affront on intellectual property rights. A lot of artists have a hard enough time already convincing people to pay for their work — illustrations, music, texts, videos, etc. All of this is worth something, it‘s someone‘s intellectual property. On social platforms you agree to produce an endless stream of content for free, making it even harder to convince people to pay for your work. Sure, there are also artists that get discovered or hired through social media, but the general direction we are moving in is that all of these things should be free. Of course the artists aren’t forced to do all this, they willingly join social media because they think it’s for their benefit. I think this is absurd.

After all I’ve read about these platforms and experienced myself, I don’t want to be a content creator for them, and you shouldn’t either. Since the rise of social media (remember 5-10 years back there weren’t any of these disruptive platforms?), a lot of businesses, but especially artists, have diminished themselves into the role of being someone who produces content every day for free for these social media companies, so that they will have something new in their feed. You can only consume all of this content by infinitely scrolling through a mass of posts, images and comments.

The problem with this content isn’t that it’s all bad or shallow, I have seen very thoughtful and interesting posts, but it’s that in the long run we can only treat it in a shallow way. All the content is part of a never-ending stream of messages (the feed) that we have to get through, so there’s never a lot of time to spend time with an individual message. Infinite scrolling demands that you go on. The post itself will only have attention for a maximum of a few hours, then it’s gone in a digital nirvana. It’s not that you can’t have meaningful exchanges on social networks, it’s that these companies make it quite hard to do so, and they make it a disruptive experience.

I think it’s not a very economical way to spend my time producing a stream of content that will only be seen for a second. I also think it’s not a very good thing to build someone else’s platform with your creative property. And lastly, I don’t buy the idea that social networks are the main channels through which artists are recognized and get opportunities these days. To me, these platforms are the new gatekeepers, and they make you jump through hoops to please their algorithms for a few likes.

More and more books and studies that have recently come out that show that social media (or whatever online distraction you can think of) makes people anxious and even depressed. It actually increases feelings of loneliness. These platforms can have a huge effect on your self-worth, as you can read in Sherry Turkle’s book Alone Together.

How I got back my autonomy

Back to my story: All of this made me think, so in 2018 I started to take breaks from social media, each longer in duration. I realized that social media was killing my creativity, and my autonomy as an artist. Without it, I finally had time for the things I really wanted to spend time with: my art, learning new things, reading books, going deep on one thing instead of being distracted by a daily search for dopamine hits in the middle of all-encompassing noise. I also blocked my access to news sites, and to other sites that I knew were time-sinks to me.

I know I’ve tried to build systems to use these platforms more consciously, I tried to block access at certain times and only came there to post and answer comments. For me this didn’t work so well, after a short while I was back into infinitely scrolling.

Do you know what was the worst about my social media use? It didn’t even feel good. It didn’t feel good to scroll through Instagram, or check Facebook 50 times a day. Instead, I felt like I wasn’t in control of these things. A lot of people describe similar behavior, and studies show this kind of social media use can actually be a form of low-level behavioral addiction. Behavior of users modified. For me the logical conclusion was to just delete my accounts. Not only because I don’t want to spend time on there. I don’t want to make other people spend more time on these platforms.

So for me the right decision was just to quit these services to make sure that I don’t spend all my day there. This might not be what works best for you, but it was a freeing experience for me that felt right.

I don‘t need to broadcast on every platform that‘s available – instead I can form bonds with my students (and clients) through my website and email list. It’s much more direct and allows me to connect with others in the way I prefer. Since I gravitate towards learning through long-form pieces of writing, or in-depth informational videos, that‘s what I want to give people, as opposed to the anemic, disorganized bites of knowledge that I could provide on social channels. I prefer to go deep with my thoughts and teaching, and I hope the people who read my blog appreciate this.

I feel a lot better since I took this step. I know how I want to spend my time, where I want my energy to go. I’m pretty sure it’s not social media. I can focus on my creativity and on the analog things in life, and that makes me calm and more centered. If I want, I can even be bored, and just stare into the sky while I‘m thinking, which is something I love to do. Maybe it’s something we should all try once in a while.

Resources for further reading

If you’re thinking about changing your social media habits, read these books and articles to form your own opinion:

Books:
Cal Newport – Digital Minimalism
Cal Newport – Deep Work
Jaron Lanier – Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now
Sherry Turkle – Alone Together
Nicholas Carr – The Shallows

Documentary
The Great Hack

Articles:
Paul Jarvis – On the Facebook Like button, and why it’s awful.
Social media is a threat to democracy: Carole Cadwalladr speaks at TED2019

I’d really like to know your opinion on this – you can send me an email or leave a comment on my blog. I appreciate each one of you taking the time to connect with me through this blog.

Thank you for reading this blog! It'll always stay free. To keep it going, you can support my work directly through a donation or through my nature sketching classes.


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70 thoughts on “Why I quit social media”

  1. FB management runs that platform with an arrogance that would not be tolerated from other industries. The outright dishonesty and lack of transparency seems to be based on semi-accurate assumptions that their user base is too stupid to figure out how their material is used and too invested to protect themselves by dropping the service. Ultimately, FB has deliberately isolated half the U.S. population by muzzling political perspectives that don’t seek a global socialist regime, e.g., the UN or EU type unelected governance. It is a deeply offensive position. I write to my elected officials frequently seeking legislation that at least mitigates their censorship actions if not breaks up their monopolies. I dropped FB and affiliates and Twaddle a few years ago with no regrets whatsoever.

    1. The arrogance comes from what I think is a kind of techno-religion that runs through these companies (“technology will save us all”). These people actually believe that they’re making the world a better place. That’s why people like Mark Zuckerberg regard fundamental problems within their company (as surfaced through the Cambridge Analytica incident) as PR mishaps, which only need some time to sink back into oblivion. And unfortunately they’ve had success until now.
      It’s a good thing you regularly write to your elected officials. Breaking up these monopolies would be the right step.

  2. Linda Weingärtner

    Du hast vollkommen recht! Mir geht es ähnlich und ich habe facebook und instagram deutlich reduziert.

  3. I have now got my social media down to a very low level. It’s only there at all because the village and a few clubs use it as their main way to pass on news and events.
    I went through all the settings and stopped as much outside interference from advertising and the like coming in as I could.
    I don’t have any social media on my phone it’s just on my tablet and I probably only look at it a couple of times a week.
    I really didn’t want to see any more pictures of people’s meals, dogs, babies and the general rubbish posted.
    It’s a liberating experience.

    1. That’s exactly the approach behind digital minimalism. It’s good to hear you can make use of these platforms in a way that doesn’t take away your time or attention, and still get all the information you want.

  4. Thanks for this article Julia. I also closed my social media accounts, and feel as if a burden has gone! It’s great to have more time to focus on my work without the jangle of “Likes” etc.

  5. Hi Julia, thanks for this thoughtful article. It’s very interesting & thought provoking. I’d love to know what advice you have for new artists seeking to sell their work or find commissions and not wanting to use social media. Is it possible?

    1. Victoria, great question! It’s definitely possible, and I’d even go as far as to say you will have an easier time without relying on social media, because you can put all your energy into building your own platform. Imagine doing this every few years again, because one social media platform goes away and you need to start at zero again. This won’t happen to your website. Don’t let people tell you that you need social media, it’s not true. It will only steal your focus. True, social media can theoretically help to get your ideas out there, but it’s a very crowded place, and your artwork will disappear into the void after a split-second.
      The best thing you can do as an artist is invest time into your craft, and set up a website and blog, and get really good. I get all commissions and work inquiries through my website or through selected places online (networks or websites that show my work or my courses).

      1. Oh boy can I relate to this information. I appreciate you posting this. I am just starting out from recovering from a major automobile accident. Voices are calling out everywhere that you have to have website, get on social media, etc etc. How do you get your art out there so that people will find you when you are in the middle of nowhere?! Everything is calling that you MUST do it this way! Yet I don’t even know how to create a website and blog! Overwhelm is easy at this point, and as you know, that doesn’t help creativity very much, mentally, nor the actual time to “figure” these things out. Its more like help help, how do I stop feeling like its a circus and actually be realistic on growing an online following?

        1. Jojo, first off: I’m wishing you a quick and complete recovery, and a lot of strength! What I would advise for getting your art out there from my own experience: some kind of platform will definitely help, but choose wisely. Your own platform is much better than using social media to spread your ideas and art. You can build a long-term following with the help of a blog and newsletter, that’s still the best way to build an audience online.
          Don’t worry if you don’t know exactly how this works. You can learn these things. Take one step after another and just make more art when you start to feel overwhelmed by the technical steps (that’s what I always do). You don’t need a fancy website in the beginning. Growing an audience will take a while (years), so you will have a lot of time to polish things. But starting at some point is important. This is why I think that learning how to build your own platform is more important than learning how to find a tiny crumb of success on one of the social platforms – they change all the time. On your website you’re the boss. You’ve got this! And feel absolutely free to email me if you need more advice or practical first steps, I’m happy to help.

          1. Thank you Julia for all these wonderful pieces of advice! I’ve been struggling a lot with getting my own art out there and dealing with social media and all the anxiety it can bring. I’m so glad to have read your newsletter this morning and your answers to this particular comment. It’s great to know that other artists feel the same as I do and are actually succeeding without social media. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

          2. Thanks, Anne. I know how difficult it can be when you’re just starting out and read everywhere that you need to be on social media, when in fact there are many artists who are successful without doing it. They just don’t write about it. I hope I’m closing that gap a little bit. And think back 5-10 years. We didn’t have social platforms then, and people have been making art despite it. It’s all a matter of perspective. Glad you got something out of the article.
            Let me know how it goes.
            Julia

          3. Thanks so much Julie! I will look for your email addy as I really do need more advice in this area

  6. Yes! I have experienced so many of these same feelings. I estimate that I have now gotten Facebook viewing down to 1/2 hour a day tops. My deepest hole is utube art videos and artist’s links I follow from emails. On FB people always post the good and spectacular things in their lives and by comparison my life is boring. I know that this is unrealistic but, even so it makes you feel bad.
    I am retired and a caregiver and love seeing what other artists are doing. I went to college in the 70’s and had a double major, education and art. I felt the art was just for fun. Wow, how different things are today. Social media allows me to feel really immersed in the field. My eyes are open to all different media’s, styles and techniques. I can flutter around like a butterfly! I also belong to a few art only networks. It’s all like ice cream, I love it but it, but can’t overdue. I love the creativity sparks. Aside from the art and connecting with relatives on the other side of the world FB bores me. If I weren’t obligated to be home so much I would be exploring other ways to connect with artists. I have to say, I learned more about art from the internet than my 5 years in college.
    The good, the bad and the ugly for sure! I learned about your work through Sketchbook Revival, which was awesome! But, it was information overload. I wanted to try everything first.
    And then there is digital art. With the Procreate app you literally have every art supply every made in a fake sort of way. Too many choices. But, that’s a whole different discussion.
    At the end of the day, nothing beats sitting down with your sketchbook, or other art project!

    1. Very true, Linda. I love the ice cream analogy! Social media can definitely be an interesting tool and show you so much inspiration about styles and techniques – I loved that too in the beginning. And then it became overwhelming at some point, and I felt it was detrimental to creativity. Of course this is built into the apps. So social media has both good and bad sides – I couldn’t really control the bad aspects well enough and felt they outweigh the good ones. I have a lot of respect for everyone who can use these tools (for connecting and inspiration) and then pull the plug. Thank you for sharing your perspective!

      1. I am using it from a far different perspective. I am the one absorbing all the creative content. I can’t even begin to imagine how it is for you, generously generating the ideas, blogs, classes, etc.
        I really appreciate all the artists contributing. But, truthfully I couldn’t see it being really beneficial for them. The competition is so fierce and I often see a flurry of utube videos where artists are all painting the same subjects or similar classes being offered. If I ever got good enough, I don’t think I would share my art on social media for fear of intellectual property theft. That being said I am so grateful for those that do thereby allowing me to learn.
        One final insight- I love the podcasts on art topics over blogs. I enjoy sitting down with a sketchbook while listening to them. While blogs are great they also take time away from sketching.

  7. There is nothing worse than Social Media. I have been off it for a long time.I never read or listen to any of it.
    The peoples ideas are all negative thought patterns. Life is about choices. I choose the uplifting in my life.

  8. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So much of what you say applies to me, but you have expressed it so concisely. I could go on, but just THANK YOU.

  9. After being on vacation in an area with no service my teens were able to relax and take in the world. Once back in to an area with service, I saw an obvious change in their behavior where it became more agitated and short fused. It was a situation where I wasn’t looking for the difference…it was such an obvious change. ….Loved that your opinion/decision is based on research!!

    1. Deb, thank you and I believe your observation is spot on. I noticed a similar effect on myself when I took breaks from my phone – after a short while I didn’t even know what I had missed and I became more present in the moment and relaxed. These devices have a direct impact on our brain, especially for young people.

  10. Very very helpful and insightful, inspirational. Working on this. I realized recently that I was zapped of creative flow and wondered about this. Thank you!

  11. Julia, I am a fairly new subscriber and a first-time commenter here. This is one of the most thoughtful pieces about social media that I’ve ever read.

    “The problem with this content isn’t that it’s all bad or shallow, I have seen very thoughtful and interesting posts, but it’s that in the long run we can only treat it in a shallow way. All the content is part of a never-ending stream of messages (the feed ) that we have to get through, so there’s never a lot of time to spend time with an individual message. Infinite scrolling demands that you go on.”

    YES! I resisted social media for a long time but finally joined FB because I wanted to take a couple of online art classes, and FB was where the class materials were posted and where the classes met. At first, I looked forward to being an active part of an online creative community. I contributed to discussions and offered encouragement to my classmates. I tried to connect in meaningful ways. But it didn’t take long to discover that I, as an individual, didn’t matter much. Support was often not reciprocated. And if I missed a lesson or didn’t post my homework right away, no one cared, no one reached out to see if I was having a problem or needed help. And why would they, when there were 100 or 1,000 or 10,000 other students to fill the gap? The classes, and the feeds, marched inexorably onward, just as you describe in the quote. So any sense of community could only be realized in a dissatisfyingly superficial way. “Belonging” became an oddly lonely experience.

    Also, I began to resent feeling like a lab rat programed to crave notification dings that would release dopamine hits. I do not want my feel-goods to be determined by a noise from an impersonal device. And I don’t want to live my life mindlessly scrolling through other people’s work. I want to be consciously creating my own.

    I, too, “gravitate towards learning through long-form pieces of writing, or in-depth informational videos.” So, while I will complete my courses on the FB platform, I prefer, for myself, the more substantial experience of my favorite blogs.

    “I prefer to go deep with my thoughts and teaching, and I hope the people who read my blog appreciate this.” I do, absolutely! Thank you for this very thought-provoking post.

    1. “The problem with this content isn’t that it’s all bad or shallow, I have seen very thoughtful and interesting posts, but it’s that in the long run we can only treat it in a shallow way. All the content is part of a never-ending stream of messages (the feed ) that we have to get through, so there’s never a lot of time to spend time with an individual message. Infinite scrolling demands that you go on. “ I found this a thoughtful point as well.

      I’ve been a member of Facebook for a long time but I mostly use it for private groups rather than socialising. I think social media tends to invite a particular type of interaction, much of which is the equivalent of f2f “small-talk”, something which will suit some people’s communication style more than others. (It’s something I’ve never been particularly adept at).

      I don’t really wish to spend a huge amount of time on social media or to have to invest in it further in order to be an artist or tutor.

      Like SusanA, I’ve noticed that a certain style has developed in some online art courses; students are provided with a space like fb where they can interact with each other and the “tutors” may make some initial lead posts, however there can be minimal actual tutor support. There may be no follow-through on posts or individual support. This is not all tutors but it does seem to be a trend. Even worse, some courses are really just eresources. As someone who has been involved in online learning myself for a long time, I find it so frustrating to see this development.

      I want to say that I do appreciate the way technology has made somethings more accessible, particularly as I have some physical disabilities.

      1. Thank you Wendy, I’ve had exactly the same impression. I too used Facebook because of those groups where you can learn or discuss art-related topics, but I found the interaction and amount of actual knowledge exchange very shallow. I’ve also taken my share of art classes that offered Facebook groups, and I’ve never gotten very much out of them.

        It’s even worse when you are part of the tutoring team, because usually in big groups new messages appear quicker than you can write a thoughtful, detailed response – deep discussion just doesn’t work well on these platforms. It’s not a good trend that instructors offer Facebook groups as a way to socialize in online courses – I totally share your frustration in that area.

    2. Susan, thank you for your insightful comment.
      How learning and online classes are shaped (or rather poured in front of students) through social media is another big topic, I’m glad you brought this to my attention. I’ve had similar experiences and I’ve never liked the usual approach to let students connect through Facebook groups.

      I’ve run (and participated in) online courses where there were structured forums available for connecting, asking questions, etc. – this worked much better, also because messages didn’t simply disappear in the feed. Of course it’s never the same as a live workshop where you have instant feedback and communication, and it can get difficult with large groups. If an instructor really wants to support the students and get through to them, they will have to offer individual feedback. This is something I’ve done in the past with some online classes and it really worked well.

  12. This is one of the best articles I have read in a long time. It truly touched my heart with a truth that I needed to hear. Staring at the sky…thinking ..I have to get back to this.

    1. Thanks Kim, I really appreciate it and I hope you’ll make time to watch the clouds and the sky! Let me know how it goes. 🙂

  13. I just deleted my IG account for good. Thank you, Julia, for being an inspiration in so many ways and for your help. This feels so good I wanna cry.

    1. Aneta, this is great, I’m happy my post helped you with the decision! I got your email and I’ll answer it later, I just wanted to say this.

  14. Thanks for taking this stand publicly. I have been moving slowly in that direction. Scattering your presence over multiple social media sites dilutes your influence. In this re-do/reformation of the on-line me, I will focus on my website [forthcoming] and Behance and Pinterest. And the last two will be used on my terms. All the social media platforms want you to add this, add that, and spend. I want to eliminate the noise. Sorry, YouTube, but you have cost me too many hours that might have been much better spent.

    1. Thanks Michael! That sounds like a good decision, I think of Pinterest more like a search engine where you can add your stuff, although they too have the infinite feed. I haven’t got any experience with Behance, but focusing mainly on your own website is a very good approach.

      I’m still torn on Youtube – it can be educational, but the comment section and the automatic video suggestions would have to go.

      All the best with your website!

  15. Thanks for writing this. As i always keep telling my kids who are 7 and 9 everything is ok if it is done just in the right measure. But of course somethings are designed to be addictive, and I am the first to lose control sometimes of my social media and my addiction to my phone (news, txt, etc…) in general. After reading this I am going to be more mindful of my relation with the phone and try to limit distractions to set times during the day. I don’t think I want to completely quit just yet (i discovered you via instagram for example) but I am going to try to limit my online time (social media/news) to maybe 30 min per day.
    Now the question is how do I teach my kids this too, as I still recall a time when I didn’t have a phone in my pocket all the time and how that felt, but they don’t know any better….

    1. Thank you Berta, you’re definitely right. If you can find strategies to control your phone and social media use, that’s a valuable skill and really good. I think kids will pick up a lot from how you use your digital tools, and maybe you can have conversations with them, or try out phone-free activities. Then they can form their own opinion. And I think at their age it’s ok to limit their access to these technologies.
      How ironic you discovered me via Instagram. Thank you for sharing your perspective!

  16. I’ve heard most of your arguments before and frankly I pretty much agree with them. I began posting my work so my friends and family could see what I am doing. I also really like a couple of groups. So I continue to give my work away free with the only expectation being that a few people see it and like it. I try to avoid the excessive negativity that many wallow in. One day I expect I will just stop posting the downside is to big. So far though I’m not there.

    1. Thank you David! Making things to share with a few select people and because you like to make them, is definitely better than sharing for maximum exposure. I’m not sure that the social media tools we have today are the best way to share our work with our friends and family, because they don’t promote real and direct communication. What’s better, a like from your friend, or a conversation with your friend about that thing you made? Just a thought. All the best with your work!

  17. valOrie paladinO

    Julia, thank you so much for this critically important conversation. I wholeheartedly agree with you. I deleted my FB account last year for the last/final time & my 4 mo old Instagram account today without any remorse whatsoever. I resented being used & it breaks my heart knowing others are being manipulated likewise. I see these so-called social media mega corporations as perpetrators of psychological abuse. I hope they will be revealed as the danger they are. It’s extremely unfortunate that so many institutions, businesses, & innocuous organisations have been sucked into using FB, often, as their only means of communicating with their members. It makes it difficult sometimes to be in touch with some groups without FB but, I always tell them that I don’t condone FB’s use & insist on another means to communicate.
    Thank you again!

    1. Thanks Valorie for sharing, and what a good decision! I hope more and more people will become aware of the dangers that these tech companies and their platforms pose for us, our mental health, and society. Don’t get me started about the fact that a lot of institutions, businesses like banks, and even the government use social media in such an uncritical way. Everyone just adopted these services when they still seemed innocent, it will be difficult to change this. But insisting on alternatives is the right thing. Thank you for sharing your experiences!

  18. This is such a good read, Julia! Thank you very much for sharing your struggle with ditching social media. I have seriously thought to do the same, but it’s hard to stop any addiction. I’ve read your post several times, and am re-inspired and hope an alternative to social media suits my needs to, at the very least, minimize at least my Facebook accounts. Again, thank you for such a thoughtful,piece!

    1. Thank you Barb! I know how hard it can be, I really struggled with the process, too, but in the end I felt better without all the accounts. I hope you find a good way to handle your use of social media. All the best and let me know how it goes!

  19. yes! I too have an aversion to social media. I scrolled thru Instagram today (for the first time in months) and then remembered this was another Facebook company. Yikes. I have a twitter account that I never use. But then again I didn’t grow up with this stuff. I do love YouTube though. My one big exception.
    Good for you. Great post

    1. Thanks Shelle! Yes, I tend to see Youtube as kind of an exception, too, if only because it works like a visual search engine and the videos don’t disappear entirely after an hour. But the comment section is often an awful place, and since it’s a Google product I don’t want to know what kind of stuff Youtube is tracking about us…actually I know some of that and I’ve become very careful with the platform. But I still use it sometimes.
      Thanks for sharing and all the best!

  20. Nancy Scarzello

    Thank you Julia! My thoughts and experiences exactly and so wonderful to hear this from you, how it has impacted your creative and artistic process. I am so grateful that you are offering your presence and teachings here on this format. I love the “Painting Clouds” I purchased through this newsletter/email ~ NOT on social media! And am going off now to paint, sketch, draw, meditate and be present with the clouds 🙂

  21. Thank you for your post, it’s so refreshing to read . My social media use is at a very low level, ie keeping in touch with family and friends but even that can sometimes be a distraction I don’t want.
    Good luck with all that you do

  22. Julia I absolutely agree with you. I was obliged to open a Facebook account recently as it was the only way to subscribe to a painting group. Whilst I think it has its uses keeping in touch with friends and family I was shocked at how intrusive the platform is. I think social media has had a negative effect on human interaction everyone is plugged into their own private bubble and it concerns me greatly the amount of information and ultimately control these companies have on the individual.

  23. This is really an important step in taking back ourselves. Social Media runs everything and I myself am tired of hearing what I “have to do in order to be successful” on Social Media Platforms. Thank you for writing about it and referring us to more reading.

  24. Joanna Zygiert- Kan

    Hello Julia, thank you for your article. I started using Instagram relatively recently but I already realised how distracting it can be. I don’t think I am ready to give it up completely but I am not looking at my account as often as I used to 2 months ago. I must admit the connections I have made that are positive and sustainable are in small percentage to the overall input and I totally agree that it is creating content for someone else. Hence, I started looking into setting up my own website and blog. I really enjoy your articles and I took few of your Skillshare classes, I really enjoy your style of nature sketching and your style of teaching. It’s great to see your process.
    So fear not I’m here to stay and I look forward to reading your articles that come to my email.

  25. Hello
    Julia
    I just started reading your post and
    I thought it very interesting and wanted to thank you for sharing this excellent article.. I am not an artist like you so I have no idea of what you were going through But I can imagine. I am trying to learn more about water colour painting but already tired of being bombarded with offers of lessons, things to purchase etc and of course I got caught up trying to read it all and all it was doing was taking up all my time, prescious time that I should have been using just learning , I became tired of that ping telling me there was an email , telling me I should be learning somewhere else etc, all those on unsolicited emails and so on and so on. And then there is Facebook, everyone always thinks automatically you are on Facebook and then look at you like you have two heads when you say No. There is a lot more I could say but honestly do not have anymore time right now. So thank you Julia.
    Bella.

    I

    1. I can totally understand this Bella, I often felt/feel the same way. What helps me, apart from the whole quitting social media thing, was to really curate the sources that I want to learn from. So I’m signed up for two or three newsletters at the most and unsubscribed from the rest. I kept the ones from people I feel I can trust and that don’t bombard me with ads, and don’t read too many different blogs or channels to stop the overwhelm (and I turned of email notifications on all devices).
      I have also found that books can be a wonderful source for learning – one voice, very condensed information, and you’re not interrupted all the time. Just some thoughts that I hope might be helpful. All the best!

  26. Hi Julia,

    I really enjoyed reading this.

    Hopefully, more and more creators will write about this experience, as as you did, the logic that determined your choice.

    We live in a time where there are more tools than ever that allow us to create at a high level. The hard part is determining what’s a tool & what’s a distraction.

    Enjoy the day,
    Dave

    1. Hi Dave, thank you! I still have hopes for this to become a larger movement. A lot of creatives feel trapped by social media. I actually thought it was a hard decision, too, and it was thanks to influences like your videos that I finally pulled the plug. So thanks for the push!

  27. I don’t have much of a social media problem….I started getting into Instagram over a year ago and immediately saw that it was not going to be a good thing in my life. I have major depressive disorder and just looking at everyone’s “perfect” lives shown on IG makes me even more depressed. I also have chronic pain and am not able to keep my home as neat and wonderful as others….there are days when I can barely get off my couch. So I decided that to have as healthy a mental state as possible, my husband and I decided we are not going to indulge in Facebook, Instagram or any other platform. I don’t need this type of comparison and stress in my life. I took my IG stuff down and never go back to look at anything.

    We also have no cell phones and it is really a wonderful way to live. Why do people have to be able to contact us at any time? No thanks! The only computers we own are third-hand used computers that a friend bought for us at an auction. We don’t have a digital camera. While we are not Luddites or Amish…haaa…we do find life is a lot easier and simpler if we delete these things from our lives. My husband and I are in our early 60’s and we remember with fondness how life was before the Internet and the fast paced style of living currently in vogue. I am finding I have more time for the important things in life if I stay off the computer most of each day.

    I’m aware this lifestyle is not for everyone but if you give it a try you may be surprised that you can in fact live without social media. We firmly believe social media is the opiate of the people and that it is going to bring about the downfall of our society.

    1. Living without a lot of technology is such a healthy thing to decide, and I completely understand where you’re coming from. And although I’m a bit younger, I often think back to the time before the internet took over all our lives, and wish for it to come back. It was definitely a lot simpler. On the other hand, we likely wouldn’t have this conversation without the internet. But maybe we’d meet with a local art group instead? Who knows. Thank you for sharing your story, Janet!

  28. I’m going through a similar process myself. Have you read the book, How To Do Nothing by Jenny O’Dell? It’s another good read about social media. Like you, I’m focusing on my blog articles and my newsletter. By not spending time on creating content for social media I can put more energy and focus into those platforms and am finding that I am giving my readers a better experience. It’s slowly paying off as I gain new readers who are truly engaged. I’ll be following along with you.

    1. Thank you so much Laura, great to hear that other creatives follow this path, and that this strategy is paying off for you, too. You have an awesome blog! I haven’t read the book, but I’ll put it on my list now. Thanks for the recommendation!

  29. I’ve pretty much spent my youth on social media, so I don’t really know what life is like without it, but I think it’s something that I have to have in order to fit in with everyone else in my age range (late teens and early 20’s), so much to avoid being seen as old-fashioned, not to mention that it feels like I have to be on social media in order to become known as an artist since I’m starting out, and to me feels like something that emerging artists should absolutely have. I started using it again after a month (a bit of a world record for me), and I honestly don’t miss it at all since all it did was ruin my wellbeing and waste tons of my time, along with the feeling that once I share my work, it no longer becomes mine and instead becomes another image on instagram

  30. Hello Julia! new subscriber here!
    Thank you for this truthful and honest post you made! it was the changing point for me, just like you, I tried to control my social media consumption and focus on my life, but that was not the solution!
    you made me want to back to my roots where I enjoy expressing myself the most 🙂 so I made a blog, just like I always wanted, and working on my art.

    https://almanalstudio.wordpress.com/2020/12/29/my-situation-with-social-media/

  31. Hi Julia!

    I just discovered your blog. A week ago I decided to take a year-long break from social media. This morning I’ve been browsing the web to read about how other creatives have managed to make this transition and found your article very empowering.

    I’m excited to see what life after social media feels like. Thank you for the information and inspiration.

  32. haha.. stare at the sky.. Sure I enjoy that too.
    And thanks for suggesting a few books. That’s something I am always on a lookout for.
    And for the blogpost, its awesome, and yes, its a simple waste of one’s energy… I am myself planning to quit instagram, where all my energy is wasted into just a two or three likes.
    Loved reading your blog post

  33. Flávia Bougleux

    Hello Julia, thank you for sharing your experience of leaving social media. I’ve been feeling this need for some time now, but I keep convincing myself that I need to continue. Nowadays I access very little social media, sometimes I don’t go there for days, but I always end up coming back and every time I do I feel overwhelmed.
    I’m an amateur artist and I always end up comparing myself to professional artists and that always demotivates me. It brings a feeling of inferiority and that I will never be good enough. I don’t get that feeling when I stay away from social media. And that alone is enough to take courage and walk away
    Your tip about having your own website or blog cheered me up and I think I’ll finally free myself…

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