BlueButterfly

I think for the most part, the internet has been a HUGE resource for me and I think it’s great having the world at your fingertips – I’ve learned so much about art and drawing, music, spirituality and psychology. Without it I wouldn’t have found out about all the cool illustrators that I follow, I wouldn’t have discovered anime or many of the bands that I listen to and I wouldn’t have found TinyBuddha.

On the other side of the coin, however – I’m not really a huge fan of social media. It’s useful for promoting my art but I’m just not at all keen on the idea of everything about a persons life ending up on an instant feed. My impression is that people are just too concerned about likes or follows, and that they need to seek validation from other people constantly about everything in their life. This also perpetuates the idea that we all need to “be perfect” and project the idea of having a perfect life – we are able to filter, edit and touch up our lives for other people to see through posts and it’s to the point where it all feels artificial.

People aren’t living in the present moment – when they are at concerts, when they are at restaurants, when they are doing something – they are just taking photos or recording it through a smartphone just to upload it and tell everybody what they were doing, just to score likes. What’s the point? I admit, I used to be a junkie for getting likes when I had Facebook but the feeling is short-lived. Afterwards, you start to crave it even more. You try and make another interesting post about something seemingly interesting that you did.

It really irked me when I was watching Adele perform at Glastonbury last summer on the television (or any TV recording of any concert for that matter) – most people were just recording the concert on their smartphones and that’s how they were viewing the concert. Just to prove that they saw Adele live? If they really enjoyed the concert and they were present then the experience should have been valid enough. Why do you need to let your followers know you were at a concert? If I go to a concert, I want to be present and to actually engage with the music and performance. I don’t want to view it as I am recording through a smartphone screen.

Just my two pence on the subject 😀

Joe