Making a living being a creative in the 21st century
Thoughts on being a full-time artist in the age of algorithms and social media platforms.
Out of a need to be more candid and to make these posts a bit more fluid and personal, I wanted to get on here and talk about a topic or idea I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. It’s simply about the frustrations of being a full-time artist who depends on social media and algorithms to make a living from their work.
I was reminded of this idea after watching an interview with Matty Healy (from my favorite band, The 1975) and Joshua Citarella on Joshua's podcast, Doom Scroll. Now, while the whole interview is really great, I recommend watching it if you’re a fan of the band. There is one section in there I can’t quite get out of my mind as a creative person who does creative stuff for a living. It’s the idea that most creative people fall into two categories. One of them is an artist trying their absolute hardest to make a living practicing their medium full-time. The other is someone who has a “normal” job to pay their bills and practices their art on the side in their spare time.
Both options are not great or ideal. What’s even more frustrating is it didnt used to always be this way. I’m only 32, so most of the time I’ve been alive, these two scenarios have been the most common. But you used to be able to do your weird, silly little art and still survive in a big city like NYC, Paris, or London. So many musicians and visual artists throughout the 20th century shared this similar story when they first started practicing their medium. They could live anywhere and scrape enough money together to be around other inspiring artists and communities.
In today’s internet age, we rely on large corporations that have created “platforms” for us to share our work and connect with brands or people who want to pay us to make work for them or buy our prints, paintings, records, etc. But despite all of that, some of us still can’t afford to make a living off of being creative.
Now I’ll be the first to admit that my screentime is embarrassing. They’ve got me addicted just as much as anyone else. But part of being a full-time artist is the constant sense of dread of checking your email, posting on Instagram, and making sure your website is up to date. There are so many checkboxes you have to check off to please the algorithms. We have to wake up every day and share our work, hope the right people see what we’re doing, and make sure people know we are still making cool work all the time. It’s actually exhausting.
Then, when you are on these platforms, you are always tapped into what’s happening in the world. You see ICE agents execute U.S. Citizens in broad daylight for fighting back against the fascist regime they work for. You see a livestream of bombs dropping on the Palestinian people, then you see someone post a “GRWM,” and then the next story is someone on their vacation somewhere tropical. It’s actually insane to see every single day. I do not think our brains were wired to consume this particular kind of bombardment on the platforms we have deemed necessary for success as artists. I’ve thought many, many times about deleting all of my social media to focus on my work and focus on literally anything else. But I actually need Instagram to make a living. I’m just not at that level in my career to not need Instagram.
Then, when you do talk about these horrors you see in the world, you get punished by the algorithm. You then take a break and just share your work like it’s business as usual, and then another horrific new thing will happen. I don’t really know how to fix all of this or what my next move should be, but it’s so incredibly frustrating to rely on these large corporations that can decide every other day whether they want to share your posts with the people who actually follow you on the app.
How did we, as artists, become so reliant on these platforms, and how do we break the vicious cycle of having to carry on as normal despite the world being on fire in every imaginable way?
Is there a future in which artists can live comfortably without having to monetize and sell their talents? Artists need time and space to create and fail, and then experiment some more. But because we are offered so little time outside of work that pays us, we are left with limited time and capacity to create things that aren't for someone else, a brand, or a corporation.
I wanted to talk about this topic because it’s been on my mind for weeks now, and every day I get more and more exhausted from the news. I’m fully aware that it is a huge privilege to even get the opportunity to simply log off and step away from it all. So many people and communities in the United States and abroad don’t have that privilege. In my lifetime, I hope that artists and creatives can make a living without being so tied to these algorithms and platforms designed to keep us addicted to our screens.
So anyways,
Fuck ICE.
Free Palestine.
Fuck these corporations and algorithms that control and decide our fate as artists.
We all deserve the space and time to create the work we want to make.