Revelations In The Absence Of Social Media
Revelations In The Absence Of Social Media
Typically, when I find myself in a deadline crunch, I take some time away from social media to place maximum focus on the assignment(s). During these sabbaticals I notice a few things:
-My production increases. Usually double the output.
-My over-thinking/artistic self-scrutinization diminishes.
-The quality of my work increases.
-I’m centered & have much more creativity and clarity of mind that extends well past the work.
One would think that with so many benefits to putting social media on the shelf it would be not just a regular occurrence, but a new status quo. Alas, that’s never what happens. At least, to me. After a week or so I find myself creeping back and I always feel a little bit ashamed that I did. True, I miss the interactions I have with my friends and colleagues, staying up on the great new announcements of upcoming projects (bests of which are the ones my friends are part of ), and enjoying the work that gets posted by creators I follow. That said, there are so many reasons it’s not a good idea to just linger there for any decent length of time longer than 20 minutes a day. At least that’s MY experience. The toxicity there might not pop up immediately, but scrolling through a Twitter feed for 30 seconds will change that with the quickness and it’s nothing but snark, hate, & doom-scrolling thereafter. Your mileage may vary, but my personal tolerance for unnecessary vitriol and negativity is low.
Recently, I discovered a friend of mine who works in animation has practically vanished from social media. Their presence is completely scrubbed with the exception of one social media account that hasn’t been updated in...a year? At first, I was a bit stunned. First, at the choice itself and secondly that I hadn’t noticed! I guess when you’re grinding on your own stuff you don’t notice things like that until it comes up. That’s when it hit me. That part about grinding on your own stuff and not noticing until things comes up. That’s when I realized not only did my friend’s choice to ghost social media was exactly the kind of ballsy, methodical, and practical decision they would make, but that I LOVED how great it was! It makes PERFECT sense. If you’re producing work and that work comes out it is both a finished project, an advertisement, AND a resumé. No real need to be online all the time if you’ve got work constantly out there being consumed in various media. Work will find YOU. Especially if it’s good. Also, if you’re already an established creator, odds are you’ve got a solid network with companies and clients you’re already working with.
With that nugget of knowledge the only reason I now see social media as valuable as a creator is to promote a finished product coming out from it’s respective company/distributor, a crowdfunding campaign, or to interact with your fan base from time to time. I later continued to realize a few other creators had been doing this all along and I hadn’t connected the dots. Or, and more likely, I was afraid I might not be able to generate enough regular respectable job offers if I didn’t stay visible via social media. Ultimately, based on this Substack alone, that’s not the case at all. It’s been quite liberating!
There’s more I’d like to say about some of the other discoveries I’ve made by reducing my social media presence, but I’ll save that for my next update post to the main section of Studio SKYE-TIGER. Until then, here is a sketch I did on the script of my latest Marvel assignment. Sketch has absolutely nothing to do with the script, btw. LOL!
Have a great week!
-Ray
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