This is a question I am always mentally stewing over. Instagram is the image-sharing platform of our time. It has democratised sharing photographs like nothing before and is available for anyone with internet access to share pictures. That’s huge. As artists flocked to Instagram in its early days we found ways to show work to others who enjoyed seeing our output. Online communities were formed by sharing content with an engaged audience. It was fun.
However, as Instagram grew it changed its user experience design significantly and monetised itself. It started to become increasingly addictive with features that played on people’s insecurities and as more people joined, we became bombarded with digital noise that we not only heard, but that we contributed to. Now, in 2021, Instagram has 1.22 billion users (Statista, State of Digital 2021) and we have become accustomed to an endless trickle of digital comparison as part of normal life. But the tide is shifting. More people are starting to talk extensively about the ways in which this app is damaging us as a society, how it’s creating a mental health crisis and scraping away at our cognitive abilities.
What does this all mean for artists? Our work is entrenched in the visual, so to simply say “no more”, and move away from Instagram, feels like it could jeopardise our development. Surely we need to be posting multiple times a day to be an active player in the art game? If we don’t interact with Instagram much how will anything ever happen for us? Hmm.
When I seriously consider how the majority of art opportunities have arisen for me to date, they have predominantly been via connecting with people in real life, through my representation with The Noble Sage art gallery, exhibitions and by doing things that push me out of my comfort zone. In all these cases, Instagram was an add on, the new age equivalent of the business card. A digital telephone directory/record of paintings and life moments/an announcement board of exhibitions to go to. But it was rarely a defining factor of an opportunity (although I’m open to being proven wrong and it could be more fertile ground in the future).
I can only speak for myself but the best opportunities have happened rather serendipitously, as though the opportunity found me rather than me finding it. I’ve realised that by trusting the process and committing to a regular practice with conviction and passion - things do happen. I don’t say this naively, we have to be active participants in this game of life, and strike when we find something worth going for, but there has been a certain magic in the unfolding of events for me.
I don’t believe that as artists we need to have some moralistic stance on selling and be anti art market or anti-commercial. If good art can be sold to a happy buyer via Instagram and can financially support an artist in their creations, career and life, then that’s fantastic. Artists should think logically and use the platform to their advantage if it’s working for them. Being an artist takes a hell of a lot of time, experience, and resources. Costs add up fast. To paint a picture of that, one tube of 59ml Series 2 Liquitex acrylic paint I use, costs me £7.
However, that being said, having a job that pays the bills eases the money pressure off me. I’m lucky I can take risks in my artwork and spend time developing it rather than making commercially viable art to get by. My personal motive these days is to finish this recent body of work and somehow facilitate an opportunity for people to experience it in real life. Their ability to buy or their knowledge of art is not important. If they resonate with what I make, then my work has transcended me and reached someone else’s heart. That’s a beautiful thing which adds meaning to what I do. Sales become the icing on the cake. Given all of this, I use Instagram to share the process of this work developing in real (ish) time in a way I hope is interesting and enjoyable. But am I doing Instagram “enough”?
The myth we are sold
Artists are sold a myth that pumping content out on Instagram will help us with our life purpose - commercially or even for respect and recognition. Instead there is a rather cold, hard reality of what is actually needed to develop as a serious artist that is easy to avoid - a consistent practice over years, networks, feedback, mentorship (1 to 1 or even through books and videos - never underestimate the power of learning from others), focused work, dealing with failures and setbacks healthily, financial resources, some luck and a deep belief that the process is everything. The myth of pumping out content perpetuates a paradox for the artist that costs them in concentration coins: spend focused time making art but also post, engage and just be distracted by Instagram all the time.
Today, we find Instagram as a confused platform that has moved away from its original objective of sharing photographs, to an overly complicated place trying to incorporate Tik Tok-eqsue formats, adding some ecommerce elements into the mix and wanting to also deliver longer form video like YouTube. The static image is essentially unfavourable and redundant. Artists have now been tasked with pivoting into becoming videographers and video editors. Heaven forbid your work is only static, your engagement will plummet right down into the abyss of algorithmic rejection (unless it’s a thirst trap of course). If it’s not Reel worthy, it ain’t shit. Instagram is trying to be everything at once yet personally, I don’t believe it is actually delivering strongly against much of it. Posts don’t reach your followers, dark UX patterns make users constantly refresh and content is not ever-green or particularly searchable. It’s not surprising to me that places like YouTube, Reddit and now Discord are creating online communities better than Instagram ever did.
Ultimately it’s easier to divert time into posting as a way to kid ourselves that this is somehow more important than other things. It’s rarely more important than other things. In reality it’s consuming excessive time and brain space that can be put to better use, even if that is simply more sleep and a less distracted mind. Because it’s important to understand that when we post, it rarely ends there, addictive checking is triggered to see how something is landing and that incessant loop damages how we think. We learn to attribute value to likes and views.
Our society is obsessed with attaching numerical measurements to things so that we can assess how worthy they are. Economists try to do this in cost benefit analysis to simplify extremely complex situations. Should we pollute river A or river B hmmm? We are in love with numbers. We believe with numbers we can become rational and scientific and full of data and impressiveness. No! This breaks down and it doesn’t even make sense in the end. The most important parts of life can never be quantified in numbers because numbers can never do justice to explaining feelings or truth. And the best art in my eyes is emotional and truthful.
***Imagine this: Instagram has redesigned itself so that when you post you never see who or how many liked or viewed. If someone wants to say something about your art to you, they message you, they call you, they tell you in person. Imagine this: Instagram got shut down forever***
The people I see who are thriving in their art practice are not doing so because they do or don’t post a lot, but because they consistently develop their craft and engage in the real world. I feel for artists though, as we have this sense of pressure hovering around us that we need to post a lot to satisfy the algorithm and have our work be more visible.
Another problem with Instagram is that we can easily make it our default presentation mode. I fall into this trap because it’s the easy way (and I need to find another/additional avenue). I feel that consuming a painting through Instagram is the equivalent of taking a bass-heavy song, and listening to it through a tinny iPhone whilst chatting to friends. How can we as a society plug Instagram as crucial for visual artists when it’s so mediocre for us?
Unlike YouTube, Spotify, search engines and blogging platforms, Instagram search results are unsophisticated, it is alway being overridden by what is being shared now: recency trumps relevancy. So to be discovered, one must post and post and post forever, now, now, now! If Leonardo Da Vinci had had an Instagram account, nobody would be discovering his work on it today. Even if someone finds art they love on the app, they cannot navigate a profile easily because Instagram doesn’t have even the simplest of portfolio features - albums.
What makes this all the more amusing is that my 9-5 job for many years has been in the world of digital marketing. I’m not an artist who is clueless in this area, in fact, I understand the level of investment and tech that goes into marketing. The strategies brands put in place, the way they come up with social media content, the sheer level of resources they have. I also understand the financial investment that goes into a brand simply to keep it going, forget about actually growing market share.
“Business As Usual” for brands can be anywhere from thousands to tens of thousands of pounds a month simply on social media spend. And then there are the people costs...the in-house teams and the agency partners; the multiple brains behind all the work. Most big brands do not rely on their organic social content to generate sales. They have immense data and budgets which they use to create and target specific audiences with paid advertising. This is the reality. So why as artists do we believe that posting a lot will generate value and reach, when the biggest, most well known brands spend so.much.money on Instagram ads?
This is why Instagram wants us to keep posting, so that we stay on the platform and generate sales by eventually responding to a paid brand ad. Then Instagram can prove to the brands who spent on advertising, that doing so is a high return investment. It’s all connected and we artists are pawns in this game, churning out non-stop, free content for very, very little reward + ongoing low level anxiety + addictive tendencies.
In a nutshell, I see Instagram as a digestible way for most people to skim over the work of an artist, to get a feel for their style or to stay in touch. Don’t get me wrong, I do think it has a small place in the overall development of an artist, because there are some benefits. It’s in our interest to have a presence given how much significance society has placed on it. We must understand though that even those with the biggest followings are complaining that their reach and engagement are dropping. What I want us all to collectively consider, is how we redefine the role of Instagram for ourselves, and how much time and energy we put into it.
On a more positive note, I do thoroughly enjoy sharing my ideas, inspiration and process with the people who support me. Instagram provides a platform to express some of these things. I can’t be a hypocrite and say I don’t enjoy this part because I really do! It’s not about “validation”, it’s more than that. I love to share elements of my art practice, the studio vibes, the ups and downs, the triumph of finally finishing a painting, and inspiration and occasionally something stupid and funny, simply because it brings me happiness to do so. I also have thoughts that I want to express in a considered way so that I can contribute to society. I want the things I say to have depth because I am sensitive to life. In some way Instagram provides an outlet for this expression.
There’s also the relational aspect, using Instagram is a way to support and learn from others, whether that’s DM’ing someone, writing a meaningful comment or simply witnessing someone’s growth and cheering them on in it all. Reading a long caption on the story behind a piece or something interesting about them as a person gives a profile a level of sincerity that we can connect with on a human level. Ultimately we are complicated beings behind the posts all trying to express something within us that we feel compelled to. This is the emotional pull that makes me stay on Instagram. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I remain undecided and in a weird place with it all. I post, take a break, post, take a break and that seems to be the best approach for me for the time being.
The idea of sharing is essential to the development of humanity. It is only because people around us have been brave enough to write the books, exhibit the art, play the music, make the product and speak their truth that we have progressed as a civilisation. My life would be lacklustre if I didn’t have access to all the incredible art and ideas that have shaped me as a person. Sharing in and of itself isn’t a bad thing. There have been discoveries I have made on Instagram that I am grateful for. But the way that Instagram has evolved itself makes it clear that its motives are not in the interest of supporting artists.
And so, having said all of that, is posting on Instagram beneficial or detrimental to artistic growth?
Unfortunately there’s no easy answer without doing trial experiments in our own lives. Only you can answer that for yourself. Playing with our involvement with Instagram until we reach a level that is healthy for us is my suggestion. Remember, even if it generates some benefit, if that energy and resource was directed elsewhere, would you actually be better off overall? As Cal Newport, author of Digital Minimalism states, if something is generating some benefit in terms of sales/opportunities, but is causing a huge deficit elsewhere, e.g mental health, then it is not worth it. It’s a net loss.
Someone once said to me “the truth will set you free”. And so I encourage anyone who is reading this to carefully assess their relationship with Instagram, be honest and interrogate it. Be critical. Remain vigilant about your use, when you fall into the trap of it all and get sucked in, and also acknowledge when it does bring value. There are nuances and there is no right answer on how much time to spend on it. But until we get real about our usage, we remain trapped. Us artists have a drive to enrich our life with creative purpose, we must never compromise that and come to a point where we are close to death or seriously ill and realise: I should’ve done the thing I loved more, and I wasted my time.
For now, my conclusion is as artists we deprioritise Instagram. Don’t let it play you, you direct your own development as an artist and always stay one step ahead. Focus on getting better in the art making, thinking deeply about what actually matters to you and building relationships with good people. Post and share as much or as little as you want but always remain hyper aware of your why. Don’t be fooled into thinking Instagram is the only pathway to a successful artistic life. Your why could be consistently sharing your work so that you have a robust profile, but you spend the majority of time determinedly working on the art not browsing the socials. Your why could be to share your process. Your why could be to put more energy into connecting with other artists. Or maybe it’s recognising that Instagram is exhausting and adds no value to your life so you leave.
When we align with our why, we stay authentic.
***
Below I have listed out 10 ways to not get too wrapped up in Instagram which may be helpful.
Deactivate for a while
I deactivated my Instagram for a week recently and it was bliss. I felt unreachable, my brain felt calmer and that felt good. By deactivating you know that you can’t miss any notification because your profile disappears. This is a good way to get a proper time out.
Don’t post
When you get an urge to post or share a story...consciously don’t. Just don’t do it and pat yourself on the back for not posting. It’s your private moment, enjoy it and validate yourself for rebelling somewhat against the algorithm.
Don’t feel obligated to like or view or feel it means anything important
Showing someone you care about/support them is not equivalent to the volume of likes and views they give you or you give them
Move towards posting less
Wean yourself off like a meat eater trying to do vegan Mondays
Instagram is not our pimp. In fact it is nothing without the creators
Delete Instagram off your phone
I delete Instagram off my phone all the time. And reinstall when I want to post. Then delete again so I’m not pulled in by how my content is doing. I use the desktop version to satisfy my addictive need to “go on Instagram” but strangely I find I don’t scroll or view stories as much, which is great.
Consider posting via desktop
Using desktop feels less intense than your phone so this might help
Don’t look at Instagram in the mornings or before bed
Set yourself up right and go to bed calm. You won’t miss anything important. And you’re more likely to see something that stresses you out vs something that inspires you and makes you have nice dreams, let’s be real.
Watch YouTube videos of artists/people who have quit - it’s inspiring and there are so many good ones
It’s reassuring to hear about people who left who have found it made them happier
There are many successful artists who don’t have Instagram/use it much
Quit
See what happens
And finally, it’s ok to not, indeed ever, get this right.