I just want to share my art. I don't want to show off my body. I don't want to post Reels 24/7. I don't want to follow dumb trends and do whatever everyone else is doing. I don't want be an "influencer". But, unfortunately Instagram doesn't want that apparently.
Me too, i get so pissed these days bc wow people are this dumb? Why keep boosting these braindead videos? But ill get nothing out of looking for who to blame LOL we just gotta draw when we want
I remember when I was posted my art on instagram it stressed me out. It got to a point where I was drawing to post not because I liked it. I felt pressure to post frequently and lead to me getting burned out. I stopped drawing seriously for a year because of it.
"If you feel like this system is impossible to figure out, social media in general and you're struggling, it's probably not your fault." thank you, I really need to hear this
My main problem is that it’s hard enough to get followers, but even when you get them instagram hides your posts like wtf 20% of your audience even has the CHANCE to see it, how can my engagement go up if it doesn’t have the chance to do so🤷🏿♂️
They do that to purposely shove ads on your feed and put suggested Reels and post from people you don't follow in it too. Which is why I wish Instagram stayed an independent company and didn't sell their souls to Mark Suckerburg.
That is because the product is not the art is us! They are selling us as a product. We are not there to make money but for the platform to make money from our work.
Thanks for you video. I like Instagram but I only use it for to share pictures of my doll collection and look at pictures. I have no comprehension of stories.
Yeah I genuinely don't see 99% of the artists and artisans I follow on IG. It's driving shopping now and I just...don't buy things??? NO‽! I'll buy prints or something but I don't want STUFF
My ADHD ridden self is really starting to hate posting on Instagram. Being a smaller artist trying to get anyone to see your art sucks, comparing yourself to bigger artists sucks, fighting with the algorithm sucks, it's so discouraging and it's so easy to burn out. I keep telling myself "maybe if my brain were different and I could post every day or week I'd be doing better" is not fucking healthy, were not fucking machines. Why is it this difficult to just get someone to SEE what you made, it's bullshit, but where else are we supposed to go.
Not to mention majority of the “bigger artist” are just boarderline rude too. When people voice their opinion’s about how Instagram priorities repost accounts and big accounts, they started going around accusing people of “bullying” big artist when it’s not really big artist they’re criticizing. Instagram LITERALLY prioritizes big artist and content creators. It shows all over the explore page which was everyone’s primary source of finding new and smaller people. Even when you follow hashtags, that’s all you see is bigger Artist popping up. They also accused people blaming the algorithm of “reaching”.
I've hated IG for a few years now but couldn't quite put it into words why, your video really articulates the reasons why this platform has become to inhumanely hostile to creators
The worst with instagram is that you still have to do it all. And in the end you don’t really reach anyone, you could write, “help I’m being held hostage and they are about to set me on fire”. And you’ll get the bot asking you to dm them and some likes without even a pageview.
Not a single soul gets to see anything anymore! They choose what you watch not you. I can't see any content from the people I follow. I have to write down the people's names I like to be able to see their feed even if I follow them.
Im an art student about to graduate college, I don't have any sort of internet following and I have been stressed about having to get one, especially on instagram. You're ending message of these platforms aren't designed to make artists succeed is true and I need to remember it. Still uncertain of my future but Im glad to know bigger artist struggle with stuff like this too. Great video!
I loved Instagram for a long while in the very beginning, BUT it turns out that I was one of a very lucky, randomly chosen group of users who had no ads in their feed. The algorithm got worse and worse, and now they’ve put ads back in my feed (which makes me see why nobody else I know likes it). I have found so many incredible artists and creators on Instagram, but people I follow barely come up on my feed anymore. I wish there were a good platform for artists and creatives, but capitalism doesn’t optimize for quality or even improvement-only profit matters.
I started automatically Setting notifications for the people I follow on Instagram due to the algorithm being so shitty. And the fact that Instagram being money hungry due to being leeched off of by Meta/Facebook, putting multiple ads and suggested post into my feed. And I sigh in relief like Gordon Ramsey being served good food in Kitchen Nightmare whenever I see a post from someone I actually follow.
You're describing my exact experience. The first convention I showed my art at in February this year opened my eyes to 1) that people actually like my art 2) I'm wasting my time trying to post and push my art online when it truely doesn't benefit me like showing up in public.
as an artist, my major gripe with reels/tiktok, is that most of the successful art related trends seems to be the ones that make the process look effortless, devaluating the end result in the process. how I'm supposed to charge for a drawing commission fairly if people saw a dude on tiktok finish a drawing on a train ride? because that's totally true, it's supposed to be that easy!
I actually had someone request a mural from me, and when I started sketching it out they were like "why are you doing that? Just sit down and do it" and I was like "what do you mean? I have to draw before I paint, this painting is complicated" and they said "well I saw a girl online just sit down and paint it out" 😕 so I totally agree with your thoughts about it devaluing work
It gets worse: I teach art. To children mostly. It often happens that I attempt to teach them how to draw a thing or do a thing with the painting and they go "oh I know how it's done!" and they proceed to do any viral hack they saw on tiktok. And the hack is usually not useful (i.e. one student "knows how to draw dogs" from a tiktok video where somebody was about to write "culo" in spanish but instead turned the letters into a dog). So now I can't teach art to these children without first removing any bs thing they learnt on a video otherwise they'll spend the class being annoyed because they can't do a perfect circle by spinning the brush on its axis or because they are stuck in step 2 of 5 of their miracle method to draw perfect eyes because step 2 is drawing a long curve and they just can't seem to get it like in the video
@@missnoneofyourbusiness yeah, I have noticed lately a lot of pseudo educational posts, drawings with a bunch of construction lines still on, loomis-looking step by step drawings, or tutorials that border on 5 minutes crafts fakery, all to get engagement from people wishing to learn or improve but not skilled enough to notice the bullshit, or worse, to sell some courses
God thank you my creative process is SO messy and erratic. It's unhinged. And now I have to dress it up and make it look clean and aesthetic to please the algorithm?? Nope I'm done
I'm glad you're saying what we're all thinking. I quit FB back in 2016 and I want to completely quit Twitr and Instagram as well. So tired of these social media sites pushing creaters to post a certain profitable way. Same for tictoc. Artists shouldn't have to make videos unless they want to.
Not going to lie, when you showed the examples of reels my cat Gracie was shown and it just made me laugh because I also am an artist!!! but of course the content that gets the most traction is a video reel I made of senior cat and not the paintings I spent hours on 😵
@@CatherineGraffam I truly have been a fan for so long too and all of a sudden after u posted this video I went to your Instagram and noticed all of the art I missed that u posted because of the crap algorithm!!! I’m happy you’ve ditched the stress and me and my Gracie should do the same 😅
I swear the pivot to video has made me so demotivated and cynical about the little output I'm capable of producing with my art due to ADHD they're literally punishing anyone who is incapable of grinding themselves to the bone and god forbid you don't have an online shop with prints and merch at the ready
You took the words out of my mouth! It’s like- art already takes time to produce (I’m a cartoonist) and now I have to have a professional video setup and editing skills- I want to do these things, but the NEED to do them just to be seen, is disheartening!
I deleted ig from my phone and haven't looked at it since. It was a big improvement when it comes to quality but also quality of my art. without having the opportunity to compare myself to other artists every minute, I started developing my own ideas more and made more of what I had interest to draw instead of what I've seen trending. I also had so much more smaller time slots available as I wasn't scrolling through my feed as soon as I had 2 minutes of free time. Not to mention that the feed, while deeply satisfying to scroll through for a visually-sensitive person, is really overwhelming and took away more energy than I expected. I am still using pinterest, but it's not on my phone which makes it easier for me to balance.
I also loved how vulnerable you were about your arm injury from overproduction. I have a wrist injury myself. This pressure to create create create, has lasting impacts on us psychologically and physically. Artists beware: don't let anything pressure you into going past your limits.
oh god i remember trying to make reels work... instagram literally is a full-time job, it got to the point where i could either post on instagram or i could make art, there wasn't enough time for both. i felt like crap at the time for "failing" at reels, even the small handful i made kicked my ass. ITS SO MUCH WORK TO MAKE SHITTY 15 SECOND VIDEOS AAAARGHHH LMAO FUCK! ok great you finished one? make five more. make them faster. in hindsight i'm glad i gave up so early cause there was no way it was ever going to be sustainable. even before reels came out... i remember absolutely GRINDING on image/video posts around 2018ish and crawled from ~300 to ~600 followers over the course of a year 😵💫. and the ROI has only dropped since then!
Fr- I appreciate so much short form video, especially when it’s funny, but that is not my gift! This app is telling me I need to perfect my art, and then make compelling viral 15-60 second videos????
Omg I could not agree more. I've decided to just quit reels completely. Its the same five sounds re-used over and over... Currently it's the stupid "reduce your expectations to 0" or "Instagram here's a picture, put that in your algorithm". There's NO creativity and it's so fucking boring 😂
Social media in general has creeped into my brain like everything I make should be documented and shared and it feels so stifling like I shouldn't take risks, make ugly stuff or try new things.
The millions of still photographers, aside from visual artists have felt the stick of Instagram's shift in their algorithms. It killed the spirit of many, me included. As a photographer that photographed male nudes, both Fb and IG censored my images by pulling them down, and banned me for 30 days at a time. Both platforms, thanks to their so called "community standards" left me and countless other artists with no place to showcase our images. Thanks for this rant. I loved every word you said. I subscribed.
SO insightful. I quit Instagram a couple months ago and I feel so much lighter somehow. And my art has improved! More importantly, I love my art and the process so much more!
I definitely agree with this as someone who is trying to make it as an artist (and is also neurodivergent). I never liked having to manage my accounts and I have a terribly hard time doing so. When my phone's permissions changed and I was no longer able to access my school's wifi (annoying but wtf am I to do), I started deeply questioning the need to post on a lot of social media sites. Nobody's going to see them anyway. My biggest issue with Instagram, however, is the compression of images--it's even harder for someone to care about your art if all the detail is gone. It's clear they never cared about _image sharing platform_ in the first place.
Yeah in the real world we deal with galleries and now online we deal with instagram! Same thing all over again. I guess TH-cam is our only choice now. They call us content creators and influencers instead of artists. I have a reel ( not even a video)that got more likes than I ever got with any image and it changed nothing for my wallet. I have never sold anything online. All my art sells in the real world. Now I can't even post pictures. If one day instagram dissapear all our work will go to trash! Art is worth it but a platform I don't think so.
Definitely needed this. I've been struggling against the Algorithm for years. I mean, I only have like 360 followers, so not a big audience anyway but I let it get to me more than once when I'd post a new painting and get only 12 likes. It's nice to know that it wasn't me doing something wrong or that my paintings are terrible (well, they might be. I don't think I can judge well)
I am so grateful you uploaded this video because...omg. It was like I was listening to a recording of myself. My story is a little different but I definitely reate to the psychological effects. Had to see a therapist about it (and still do!) and I'm embarrassed how many nights I've tortured my anti-social media partner talking about my hang ups with an app I literally HATE lmao. Thank you for making me feel not so alone!!
At this point I don't really have the patience to keep up with instagram. It's just not profitable for artists. I was able to get a small following for awhile but when I found out that the hashtags don't really affect the amount of views you get and how Facebook is constantly making bad decisions for the platform I just finally said that it's not worth it to upload my content to it constantly. And I'm still debating whether or not I want to keep the app or delete it all together.
Instagram feels like a rat race to me! 🤣 " It feels like there's this pressure to constantly be visible on the app to stay "relevent" which i feel to be so twisted to put onto users. Im now seeing that all this is designed on purpose. Instagram is short for instant gratification. I like to take my time with my art work and let inspiration come to me organically and naturally in the timing that it does, so really I don't post super frequently. When I do finish a piece and come back to share Instagram takes it as "ohh you've been inactive for too long, so we aren't going to push your post out. It's a game I don't wanna play.
Great video! ♥️ Being an artist myself, I totally understand where you’re coming from. It feels no matter how hard you work or how good your art is it’s hard to reach new people and grow your audience because of the horrible algorithm. The only artists that are doing okay are the ones who ride trends and draw fanart all the time…not my thing. I’m honestly fed up with Instagram at this point and I haven’t been on the app in over a month. We need a new photo sharing platform…it’s getting really hard out here :(
I was spending 10% of my time painting and 90% of my time making promo videos for social media and was miserable!! It never led to any sales and prevented me from doing things I love.
IG has always rubbed me the wrong way precisely for the lack of sharing ability; say all what you want about how Twitter is screwing artists over, they really can't do worse than whatever bullshit IG puts anyone through just so random chance can maybe put your art in front of someone's eyes. It's also a platforms that feels chillingly superficial to me in general; due to the focus on pictures, the vast majority of people that I see there are really just sharing aesthetic photos instead of, well, reality. It was to a point where I don't even like calling it social media; at least most other social media actually facilitate a connection. I really feel that crushing feeling of having to deal with it because you're the only one supporting a family at this difficult time, too. I graduated in the middle of the pandemic and almost immediately became the sole provider to a family of 3 with 3 cats, and at the worst of it, I would wake up so stressed that my limbs feel like they're cold and dead as I force myself to juggle 3-4 commissions at one time, constantly. I feel like many artists would hate me for saying this, but I really don't want art to be my full time job, I really would rather have a job so that I can keep art as a passion. The grind is the grind. I'm *immensely* grateful that commissions have kept my family afloat and fed, but damn I sure don't have the therapy to deal with this for the rest of my life! Now the only thing that keeps me sane and chugging along is... I don't follow the insane pace that is art Twitter. I already sold my soul enough for this, the least I can do for myself is keep the rest.
Thanks for making this, it touched on a lot of my own experiences and was validating! Instagram is my main platform and source of income, and *puts on tinfoil hat* I feel like ever-shifting new protocols for the type of posts ( frequent, video, has a human face in it, etc) are designed to keep us so busy we cannot diversify platforms easily, remain on insta and eventually pay to keep our own jobs making THEIR platform interesting. its cartoon evil genius level, really. I simply do not have the time to keep up my insta and pay my bills while also trying to grow a new following from zero elsewhere on top of physically making art, consistently and at a high quality.. you cant even re-post tiktoks because they downgrade things with the watermark, strike things with audio from off insta etc. My final gripe is more generalized, but I truly find myself with a hollow sort of horror around adapting art to video. Sure, process is nice to watch, I make process videos myself, because Ive had to..but the full magic of a painting is NOT seeing the process, its seeing the painting as a whole. Taking time to live and feel in the image, without the artist- a personal connection with the work. If the "medium is the message" what does the 30 second process video tell us about a painting? I feel often that it diminishes the emotional and narrative impact of the imagery. I think there is a LOT to say about all of this and I could rant for many more paragraphs but Ive been typing too long and my overlords demand tribute at 12PM, three days a week or else...;)
You've made some amazing points and actually caused me to realise a lot of stuff...I remember having a thought years ago about social media and artists, I thought 'how did artists sell their art before social media, or even the Internet as a whole?'. Just goes to show how we've been sucked into social media and this idea of building a following or increasing engagement, yuck I hate saying that 😂 but yeah, thanks for this video, I think I'll get rid of my FB and IG and actually concentrate on my art properly 👍
I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one who felt that SUDDEN extreme drop in IG engagement. I almost thought I was imaging it. I was doing so well slowly growing my platforms as a freelancer and its felt like a massive wall was dropped in front of me that I just cannot climb. my IG has been stagnant and losing interaction ever since and it is the most defeating thing
I don't like Instagram but I could never really explain why And then Cat explained lack of community and everything clicked Instagram just feels like a void to throw art in the likes and follows just feel cheaper there than any other platform
it is really crazy to see artists i really look up to go through the same things that i did. i had a similar break back in 2020 from posting art on pretty much all social media. i think it's a combination of social media explicitly being not for art, and also being unwilling/unable to branch out to more art-focused sites (dare i mention the dreaded D place, which now has ALSO succumbed to algorithm problems). the best thing to do is to not play the game. make art for yourself as much as you can.
As soon as I saw the headline I was PUMPED to hear your take- fully agree. I’m leaving this comment section to delete mine also. I have been grinding away for 8 years and I topped out at 880 “followers” two years ago. Haven’t broken that since. I’m not exactly amazing but I’m not terrible and it’s a waste of my time and almost all other artists I know are struggling with the platform. Furthermore, it is a toxic misrepresentation of how to value artist and art in general. I wouldn’t be surprised if this time in art history is viewed as the dark ages are; a time learned from but most of it’s values and practices forgotten or seen as barbaric.
I loved everything about this video, thank you! Yesterday I suddenly felt SO anxious about Instagram Reels and was just compulsively checking the view count/ likes ratio. It was almost 11pm and I was still checking that damn number like???? I realised then that this just wasn't healthy for me. I'm now going to stop posting reels altogether and just focus on sharing art to my teeny tiny pool of followers (it's less than 100 right now haha). I'm not expecting to grow or reach people but whatever. I don't want to play Instagram's silly games that literally KILL creativity... Just look at your reels feed and you'll see the same 5 sounds recycled over and over 🙄
It's always amazing to understand how much control these platforms have over our brains and our lives. By the way, l've watched a bunch of your videos over the last few days and I really enjoy them.
The thing is… Costumer/potential client mostly use Instagram… It's just almost impossible to get a client on the other platform, specially in my country. Its just sucks…
Yep, all true. Thank you for this video. So sorry it affected you this hard physically and emotionally. Low engagement - for whatever reason - is certainly not a reflection of you as an artist or a person. I am still playing the reel game because it’s business, but I low key despise it. Have been focusing on TH-cam since 2020 and it’s been a much more positive experience 😊
Yesssss! I needed this so badly, really feeling not great lately about the work I've done versus where I'm at. Your common sense and humor always make things seem less terrifying somehow. Instagram was a nightmare, I got out of there just before reels became a thing.
I went from getting 200 likes of a random pic of a cow from a holiday trip into going from 1400 likes on art posts to literally around 20, then watched your video and deactivated that shit. Not even feeling bad about it but it got me feeling insecure for a while.
thank you so much for talking about this. instagram was the first social media I used and it was always the main one for me, as I got the hang of it early on so it stuck with me best. my different accounts through the years were all pretty successful, but more importantly brought me genuine joy, right up until mid-2020. I always thought it was just me losing motivation that made the account I was previously doing so well on fail. though I knew instagram’s algorithm was to blame, I thought I was at fault for not adjusting to the change efficiently. this video feels like a revelation. it’s so disappointing because so much of what I know and was good at was on that platform, but the changes just aren’t for me :// it’s bittersweet, relieving but distressing. thank you cat ❤️
@@bluewren65 yes, and while I was always aware of that, I felt the pressure to change my content with no motivation to do so. the lack of motivation is what felt like it was my fault. now I understand though that it was because I just was not a fan of the changes. when I said it before seeing this video, it felt like I was just making excuses. absolutely never said it was subtle. I was aware of it, but still felt a need to overcome it.
@@spikenoid Please don't think that I was implying that you are unintelligent or stupid for continuing to use social media. It's like you get trapped in a web of toxicity that you can't escape and I know the feeling well. It's the most cynical way of running a business. They should be honest, stop calling it social media and start calling it advertising media. There really is nothing social about it when everyone is jockeying for attention and every 3rd post is a literal paid ad. Imagine if in a face to face situation people kept interjecting into the conversation every 3 minutes to tell you about a great product that "you just need to have in your life". You tell them that you are not interested and it's not the purpose of this social event to have their wares shoved in your face and yet, 3 minutes later they are back. You'd very quickly either punch them in the face or leave. What you are describing mirrors my own experience with FB back in the day. I had an artist page and it was gaining a bit of traction, then they changed the algorithm and I realised that no one who was following me was seeing my posts. I persisted and tried to change things but to no avail and I realised it was all a giant fool's errand. I switched to instagram and I really loved it, until Zuckerberg bought it and the same garbage that drove me away from FB started up on IG. I still have IG but I don't really use it other than to post still images and run.
I use to think it was my art too but, nope it's Instagram's busted algorithm which, yeah I do agree it's super manipulative. The fact that Instagram picks and chooses what you can and cannot see on your feed is just disgusting. Also, Instagram updated their app to add a sensitive control feature and they were automatically setting people's accounts to "limited". I got my account set to limited by default and I can't even turn it off.
You actually went through all the reasons that I hate Instagram! I’ve been telling people for years why I didn’t wanna get on there, and they kept acting like I was exaggerating or something. I’ve had a page now for about 6 years, but rarely use it because It’s a huge headache for all the reasons you stated. And I wish I could see all of the artists that I follow, instead of a bunch of useless ads for things that I don’t even have interest in. I don’t know how some people can spend hours on IG. it’s so boring, never showing more than 4 or so folks that I follow.
It was around 2012 that I began to see how social media was not set up to benefit creators of any type of content. The problem is, creators, artists specifically, neeeeed to get their work to general masses, and reach patrons- that is NOT what social media platforms are good for... :/ They set up rule for engagement- that that is not to keep their creative coming forth- it is nearly impossible for a new content creator to break in as an individual without foreknowledge of the algorithms.
I keep thinking we need a social network for artists/creators but then I remember deviantART kinda went to shit and is probably fueled by an engagement-based algorithm by now.
I sort of started losing interest on ig back in uni cause I was too busy to keep track of it but would post here and there. Finally completely dropped using it when they came up w reels cause I read an article describing how ig was expecting ppl to deal with their new algorithm and I decided i wasn't about to use ig as a full-time job just to get some few likes hahs
Is it ironic I'm commenting to help the alg0r1thm??? Ugh. Everyone should see this. I just found you and love your content. Thank you from a fellow mainer.
I was aware that Instagram is terrible for artists, as well as everyone else, but I didn't know about the 'pivot to video' and its impact on media companies.
THANK YOU FOR THIS! I'm a musician/producer/engineer and maaaan it took me so long to get that right, and to pigeonhole my art in to the concept of "content creation" in order to gain followers on these platforms has certainly stifled my growth and I believe it's done the exact opposite of what I wanted it all to do for me!
i am a follower of THOUSANDS of artists and when I open my feed I only see the same 5 accounts. it's been years since i gave up on posting on my personal acc 'cause i used it for sharing stuff with ppl i like, but now i can't even do that. now i just use it to post photos of my stuff to link to clients when they contact me. nobody has even reached me there. what a waste of tool, it used to be ok there.
I don't mind art reels if they are genuinely interesting, but I HATE the ones that feel like I'm watching a magic trick or a TV ad - and I especially hate the gross robot voiceovers. That disturbs me on a molecular level. Like the second I hear that, I want to unfollow that person and throw my phone into the ocean.
Oh heck yeah, I'm all about the things you're saying here. Love to hear it and I love to read responses in the comments, I'm so thoroughly engaged by your videos that I'm almost in tears. I'm always happy to see that little bell indicating a new upload from you. I'mma get back to watching the video now, I just thought I'd take a moment to pour some thoughts into the comments.
I'm a designer and I just had a dramatic (artist 😂) meltdown bc I'm so SICK of the Performance art bullshit we have to do to please people who don't even support our business The amount of work that has to go into "content creation" (fucking hate those words!!) Has completely sucked my creative energy to the point I can't even focus on designing anymore. All that work for the algorithm to just reject you or keep you in the demographic of creepy men instead of customers
What pisses me off is that IG had the gall to add new features to photo format posts (adding music and topics) just for them to not push it to peoples feeds 😭😭😭 feels almost like a cover up
Ok this lighting though? Beautiful video. Thank you so much for making this. I too felt like instagram had deemed I was unworthy and therefore it was true. Thank you for articulating that and for the in depth history of the push for video. Subscribed and I literally want to share this video with every person I know who whether they work in social or not.
Yea I used to get really annoyed/depressed that I could never build an audience on IG. Eventually I saw it for what it was, I still share stuff on their but I am content with my very limited engagement. I am lucky tho, I don't need to promote myself online in the same what other freelancers do. Great video as always Cat!
I gave up on Instagram years ago as an artist and an independent graphic designer; I'm glad you made this video to put words to how so many other artists feel.
Thank you so much for this video. I have been feeling the anxiety and starting to doubt if I’m a good artist at all, since engagement with my posts dropped dramatically. I have even tried doing a few reels and they get even less engagement!! I have been seriously considering taking a long break from IG, but then I don’t know where I can showcase my work. I don’t like doing videos, I just don’t have the knack for it. I just want to paint my pretty pictures and have people who like them , give them a new home. 😔
I felt this to my core! I've been making art on my Instagram for a year now, and have so many art friends and myself who are extremely frustrated. Best wishes to you and thank you for continuing to use your platform to support us!
I also had a lot of chronic pain problems as an artist, same as you. surgery and the shots just weren't helping anymore. I'm doing a lot better since seeing a massage therapist and chiropractor that did xrays, (turns out i was developing arthritis in my neck, and that was moving down to my extremities.) I really recommend those if theyre available to you. there is hope to get better without going under the knife.
Fuck, as a woodworker, that (@22:00) is how I feel about instagram: You have to perform several tasks by yourself that would be easily done if Facebook didn't barricaded every way out of their ecosystem.
Thank you for this. I mostly keep my head on my art and not on social media but lately, I’ve been conflating online performance with the quality of my art. Imposter syndrome has cropped up alongside feelings of inadequacy. I have to remind myself of everything you’ve said here. Thank you. Always a pleasure to enjoy your art and videos.
Bravo, I just love your videos. So much of this stuff needs to be said and heard, thanks for sharing. It brings a lot of hope to us artists who are adverse to social media.
thank you for putting some of these thoughts out in the open. i left six years ago and often feel pressured as an artist to return. there are some artists i know who exclusively sell on instagram because they felt as though the platform forced their hand
hell yeah. I quit insta after the algorithm change and went to an in-person arts festival recently, where I talked to hundreds of people about my work. People told me that I was the only person doing that (I literally brought my work there), where everyone else was sitting behind piles of their work or whatever, not talking to people and expecting their fans to come running up for engagement. (they did, definitely). I had another artist tell me that it's bad not to be on Instagram, that she gets all her work from instagram, but I don't give a fuck. It doesn't work for me, it doesn't fit my morals or lifestyle, and it caused me serious performance and life issues. I've made so much work since then, not doomscrolling on tiny squares, that I have time to make larger projects, study work and just become a better artist. Thanks for putting this video into words/speech, I appreciate it.
Festivals and other vending events are where I’m coming from. I joined IG years ago to try to scale up from those, but it’s just been depressing and useless for all the reasons that Cat stated. 😩
I quit Facebook in 2016-2017, quit Instagram in early 2020, and lurk Twitter like twice a week. I'm so done with social media outside of the group chats I have with my close friends.
I wish I could give you a hug. Thank you for sharing this. I've been planning to start posting more on IG to start to build my own career. Now I know to try somewhere other than IG. I think you just saved me a lot of time and heartache.
Instagram is a great platform, it just depends on how you use it, and your attitude towards it. I wouldn't let this video discourage you. You get out of it what you put into it. Good luck 🙂
Great video! Instagram is a frustrating beast with how large and attention-dominating it is. I'm a hobbyist photographer, and I find myself constantly stymied by not having an Insta account. Not even for difficulty in sharing my work, but in how many photographers basically only have Insta for online presence, so you have to be on their to even see their work. There's got to be a better way for artists to work, but I genuinely don't know what it IS in these platform dominated times... Oh yeah, and the usual catchall answer that is Twitter just got fucking bought by Elon Musk, so we might not have that anymore either. Wee.
I just post work with no expectations. The minute you rely on your work for money - you are doomed to be derivative. You are on your own path working out your own aesthetic, craft and narrative challenges in the work. Anything else is false. When I started in the 80's there were no social media platforms but there were still pressures to make certain kinds of work to get attention. I tried to follow those trends. At that time it was conceptual art and feminism so I made it. The work became more and more referential and difficult and I managed to whittle my audience down to about five people with maybe one who actually understood the message. The rest were friends. What I came to understand over time is you make art for yourself. Look at art history, perhaps you are destined to play the long game.
I have about 11k followers on IG right now. Once reels became a thing, my videos went from getting 10k views to like 50. Now I get like 200 likes no matter what I post which is less engagement than when I had 500 followers 😅 also I just hate using IG as a user!
I liked instagram a lot until about half a year ago or so. I would use it to post my paintings and see paintings that other artists posted. Pretty recently I've started to see an ad after every two or three posts from the artists I follow (and those sometimes also post stuff that doesn't interest me, like photos of their pets or parties), so I feel I'm mostly scrolling through ads now. I hate ads, so why would I spend time scrolling through them? Instagram used to be for art, since facebook bought it it has been catering to social crap, brands, commercial crap. Yes, reels are completely ridiculous.
Threads is gonna suffer the same fate thanks to Mark not knowing how to properly run a website much like Elon. All they see is profits. They Don care about being user friendly. This is why billionaires should have total control over the internet.
Solid alright, I've noticed it's been really hard to have posts really go anywhere on insta it sucks how much a monopoly there is on the internet I hope it gets better it really would suck having something so grand be snuffed out by greed nonsense
I got tired of playing the game YEARS ago. I'm glad I'm just a writer and don't really need to bother with IG. I make a post every time a new book is out just so there's something there if people find it, but otherwise I don't touch it.
Thankyou for making this ♥️ I've been frustrated by instagram since Facebook bought it and the gentrification process that proceeded it. Artists made it cool, then corporations ruined it :( Trying to grow by instagram as a person in australian fashion and australian music has honestly been demoralizing and humiliating. I don't understand why my content doesn't do well (and neither do my established colleagues) , and I can't afford to spend the time/money to change that. The statistics and insights ig provides are also sub par compared to literally every other platform!!!! Thankyou for coming to my ted talk
Thank you for sharing your experience. 🖤 It really does suck how the algorithm works against people trying to make a living. On my end of IG, in the tarot community, there are security issues. Lots of scammers impersonating content creators and tarot artists. Some have left, others can't afford to leave. Just goes to show how little many of these platforms care about their users. 😞
This is very insightful, thank you! I tried using Instagram recently and since I'm a very small artist even on other platforms it's been such a bad experience. The only comments I've gotten are scam accounts preying on small creators. And I've seen big artists losing followers and giving up too. Twitter isn't as bad but I wouldn't say it isn't great for artists either. (Funnily enough, the most engagement I usually get on my art is still on Tumblr even after the porn ban and mass exodus. The tag system still works and there aren't algorithms to fuck you over 😭)
This hits so hard. I'm still on Insta, but only barely. Comments turned off, and I only post and leave. It still yields the occasional commission, so I think it's worth keeping for now...but we'll see how long!
I am on Insta - and yes I tried the IGTV live streaming twice to rapturous tumbleweed. I was waiting for you to talk about how Instagram changes the way you work, and in what format - and you didn't disappoint! This is what disturbs me about IG the most - that you get square sketchbooks for Inktober etc (yes that is it's own shitshow) and the idea that I have to be a performing organ-grinders monkey with video doesn't sit well with me - mentally. I found that my small image audience - there is still some, but yeah it's tiny - likes representational things, hyper-realism, detail, and weirdly...sewing? MASSIVE sewing community on there, I found by accident.... This means I've had a love/hate for a long time, because I feel I'm making work for an algorithm than never pays me....I get angry, do some abstract shit...it bombs, rinse, repeat. Chasing those likes is a fool's game, creatively. Monetarily is a different matter....but if you aren't doing the work you want to make, you just get disenfranchised and stop posting. I do that all the time....the funny thing is IG does push lapsed posters for a bit, then drops you...and wants you to hamsterwheel posts evey day. I refuse to do that. Also weirdly it rejects some forms of image posts. It HATES line art, I regularly get line art rejected. Also it hates using your original dimensions, even with the weird crop...even if there's a IG ratio just like it. Then it goes through fine. I sometimes had to post a colour image in square format before it would allow me to post another line art/ink image. So it's doing something weird there - pushing people to work/post in squares, colour, or the existing other ratios. It wants to control WHAT you post as well!
This video helped me a lot as a very small artist whose engagement has slowed to almost nothing on Instagram recently. Instagram was always the best platform for my art and where I saw the most growth, and I really thought my work was just plateauing or maybe I wasn't putting out enough work, but it's refreshing to hear the problem isn't just me, thank you.
I was an early adopter myself on MySpace and it blew up my sales and commissions. MySpace then fell out of favor for Facebook. After that happened, I honestly haven’t had any social media related sales or commissions since. I’m still doing art, but Facebook is for family and people that already know me. I got on Instagram late, like about four years ago. I have a few reps, galleries and publishers follow me. Zero related work or sales from that. Most of the people that frequently comment on there, already follow me on Twitter and Facebook. I’ve written it all off and it’s for the best. I know most social media is only usable until they start taking on stockholders. Then it all shits the bed quick.
I just want to share my art. I don't want to show off my body. I don't want to post Reels 24/7. I don't want to follow dumb trends and do whatever everyone else is doing. I don't want be an "influencer". But, unfortunately Instagram doesn't want that apparently.
Me too, i get so pissed these days bc wow people are this dumb? Why keep boosting these braindead videos? But ill get nothing out of looking for who to blame LOL we just gotta draw when we want
I remember when I was posted my art on instagram it stressed me out. It got to a point where I was drawing to post not because I liked it. I felt pressure to post frequently and lead to me getting burned out. I stopped drawing seriously for a year because of it.
That's exactly how I feel. Feels like I'm stuck in an endless competition and that I'm just drawing to keep up and not drawing for fun.
"If you feel like this system is impossible to figure out, social media in general and you're struggling, it's probably not your fault."
thank you, I really need to hear this
My main problem is that it’s hard enough to get followers, but even when you get them instagram hides your posts like wtf 20% of your audience even has the CHANCE to see it, how can my engagement go up if it doesn’t have the chance to do so🤷🏿♂️
They do that to purposely shove ads on your feed and put suggested Reels and post from people you don't follow in it too. Which is why I wish Instagram stayed an independent company and didn't sell their souls to Mark Suckerburg.
@@CrazyAlienLady051 oh the ads, that's a whole problem of Facebook by its own. I also wish they weren't showed every ten seconds
That is because the product is not the art is us! They are selling us as a product. We are not there to make money but for the platform to make money from our work.
Thanks for you video. I like Instagram but I only use it for to share pictures of my doll collection and look at pictures. I have no comprehension of stories.
Yeah I genuinely don't see 99% of the artists and artisans I follow on IG. It's driving shopping now and I just...don't buy things??? NO‽! I'll buy prints or something but I don't want STUFF
My ADHD ridden self is really starting to hate posting on Instagram. Being a smaller artist trying to get anyone to see your art sucks, comparing yourself to bigger artists sucks, fighting with the algorithm sucks, it's so discouraging and it's so easy to burn out. I keep telling myself "maybe if my brain were different and I could post every day or week I'd be doing better" is not fucking healthy, were not fucking machines. Why is it this difficult to just get someone to SEE what you made, it's bullshit, but where else are we supposed to go.
Not to mention majority of the “bigger artist” are just boarderline rude too. When people voice their opinion’s about how Instagram priorities repost accounts and big accounts, they started going around accusing people of “bullying” big artist when it’s not really big artist they’re criticizing. Instagram LITERALLY prioritizes big artist and content creators. It shows all over the explore page which was everyone’s primary source of finding new and smaller people. Even when you follow hashtags, that’s all you see is bigger Artist popping up. They also accused people blaming the algorithm of “reaching”.
I've hated IG for a few years now but couldn't quite put it into words why, your video really articulates the reasons why this platform has become to inhumanely hostile to creators
The worst with instagram is that you still have to do it all. And in the end you don’t really reach anyone, you could write, “help I’m being held hostage and they are about to set me on fire”. And you’ll get the bot asking you to dm them and some likes without even a pageview.
Not a single soul gets to see anything anymore! They choose what you watch not you. I can't see any content from the people I follow. I have to write down the people's names I like to be able to see their feed even if I follow them.
Im an art student about to graduate college, I don't have any sort of internet following and I have been stressed about having to get one, especially on instagram. You're ending message of these platforms aren't designed to make artists succeed is true and I need to remember it. Still uncertain of my future but Im glad to know bigger artist struggle with stuff like this too. Great video!
You need to be in contact with art directors and job openings. Not Instagram.
@@rockon8174 yeah definitely, still easier said than done haha
I loved Instagram for a long while in the very beginning, BUT it turns out that I was one of a very lucky, randomly chosen group of users who had no ads in their feed. The algorithm got worse and worse, and now they’ve put ads back in my feed (which makes me see why nobody else I know likes it). I have found so many incredible artists and creators on Instagram, but people I follow barely come up on my feed anymore. I wish there were a good platform for artists and creatives, but capitalism doesn’t optimize for quality or even improvement-only profit matters.
I started automatically Setting notifications for the people I follow on Instagram due to the algorithm being so shitty. And the fact that Instagram being money hungry due to being leeched off of by Meta/Facebook, putting multiple ads and suggested post into my feed. And I sigh in relief like Gordon Ramsey being served good food in Kitchen Nightmare whenever I see a post from someone I actually follow.
You're describing my exact experience. The first convention I showed my art at in February this year opened my eyes to 1) that people actually like my art 2) I'm wasting my time trying to post and push my art online when it truely doesn't benefit me like showing up in public.
as an artist, my major gripe with reels/tiktok, is that most of the successful art related trends seems to be the ones that make the process look effortless, devaluating the end result in the process. how I'm supposed to charge for a drawing commission fairly if people saw a dude on tiktok finish a drawing on a train ride? because that's totally true, it's supposed to be that easy!
I actually had someone request a mural from me, and when I started sketching it out they were like "why are you doing that? Just sit down and do it" and I was like "what do you mean? I have to draw before I paint, this painting is complicated" and they said "well I saw a girl online just sit down and paint it out" 😕 so I totally agree with your thoughts about it devaluing work
It gets worse:
I teach art. To children mostly. It often happens that I attempt to teach them how to draw a thing or do a thing with the painting and they go "oh I know how it's done!" and they proceed to do any viral hack they saw on tiktok. And the hack is usually not useful (i.e. one student "knows how to draw dogs" from a tiktok video where somebody was about to write "culo" in spanish but instead turned the letters into a dog). So now I can't teach art to these children without first removing any bs thing they learnt on a video otherwise they'll spend the class being annoyed because they can't do a perfect circle by spinning the brush on its axis or because they are stuck in step 2 of 5 of their miracle method to draw perfect eyes because step 2 is drawing a long curve and they just can't seem to get it like in the video
@@missnoneofyourbusiness yeah, I have noticed lately a lot of pseudo educational posts, drawings with a bunch of construction lines still on, loomis-looking step by step drawings, or tutorials that border on 5 minutes crafts fakery, all to get engagement from people wishing to learn or improve but not skilled enough to notice the bullshit, or worse, to sell some courses
God thank you my creative process is SO messy and erratic. It's unhinged. And now I have to dress it up and make it look clean and aesthetic to please the algorithm?? Nope I'm done
I'm glad you're saying what we're all thinking. I quit FB back in 2016 and I want to completely quit Twitr and Instagram as well. So tired of these social media sites pushing creaters to post a certain profitable way. Same for tictoc. Artists shouldn't have to make videos unless they want to.
Not going to lie, when you showed the examples of reels my cat Gracie was shown and it just made me laugh because I also am an artist!!! but of course the content that gets the most traction is a video reel I made of senior cat and not the paintings I spent hours on 😵
Haha that is so funny. I was on it for about 2 seconds and just scrolled through for the B roll. I would have stayed for that cat!
@@CatherineGraffam I truly have been a fan for so long too and all of a sudden after u posted this video I went to your Instagram and noticed all of the art I missed that u posted because of the crap algorithm!!! I’m happy you’ve ditched the stress and me and my Gracie should do the same 😅
thank u for the slice of sanity, im so tired of being tugged around by social media as an artist
I swear the pivot to video has made me so demotivated and cynical about the little output I'm capable of producing with my art due to ADHD
they're literally punishing anyone who is incapable of grinding themselves to the bone and god forbid you don't have an online shop with prints and merch at the ready
You took the words out of my mouth! It’s like- art already takes time to produce (I’m a cartoonist) and now I have to have a professional video setup and editing skills- I want to do these things, but the NEED to do them just to be seen, is disheartening!
I deleted ig from my phone and haven't looked at it since. It was a big improvement when it comes to quality but also quality of my art.
without having the opportunity to compare myself to other artists every minute, I started developing my own ideas more and made more of what I had interest to draw instead of what I've seen trending.
I also had so much more smaller time slots available as I wasn't scrolling through my feed as soon as I had 2 minutes of free time.
Not to mention that the feed, while deeply satisfying to scroll through for a visually-sensitive person, is really overwhelming and took away more energy than I expected.
I am still using pinterest, but it's not on my phone which makes it easier for me to balance.
Hit the nail on the head!!! The amount of pressure I feel has dwindled my creative energy to practically nothing
I also loved how vulnerable you were about your arm injury from overproduction. I have a wrist injury myself. This pressure to create create create, has lasting impacts on us psychologically and physically. Artists beware: don't let anything pressure you into going past your limits.
oh god i remember trying to make reels work... instagram literally is a full-time job, it got to the point where i could either post on instagram or i could make art, there wasn't enough time for both. i felt like crap at the time for "failing" at reels, even the small handful i made kicked my ass. ITS SO MUCH WORK TO MAKE SHITTY 15 SECOND VIDEOS AAAARGHHH LMAO FUCK! ok great you finished one? make five more. make them faster. in hindsight i'm glad i gave up so early cause there was no way it was ever going to be sustainable.
even before reels came out... i remember absolutely GRINDING on image/video posts around 2018ish and crawled from ~300 to ~600 followers over the course of a year 😵💫. and the ROI has only dropped since then!
Fr- I appreciate so much short form video, especially when it’s funny, but that is not my gift! This app is telling me I need to perfect my art, and then make compelling viral 15-60 second videos????
Omg I could not agree more. I've decided to just quit reels completely. Its the same five sounds re-used over and over... Currently it's the stupid "reduce your expectations to 0" or "Instagram here's a picture, put that in your algorithm". There's NO creativity and it's so fucking boring 😂
@@floatwiththesticksReading your comment during the Makeba era.
Social media in general has creeped into my brain like everything I make should be documented and shared and it feels so stifling like I shouldn't take risks, make ugly stuff or try new things.
YUP! When I started doing my polaroid paintings and I got about 1/5th of the likes on instagram and I was like "NOPE"
@@CatherineGraffam I love those paintings
The millions of still photographers, aside from visual artists have felt the stick of Instagram's shift in their algorithms. It killed the spirit of many, me included. As a photographer that photographed male nudes, both Fb and IG censored my images by pulling them down, and banned me for 30 days at a time. Both platforms, thanks to their so called "community standards" left me and countless other artists with no place to showcase our images. Thanks for this rant. I loved every word you said. I subscribed.
SO insightful. I quit Instagram a couple months ago and I feel so much lighter somehow. And my art has improved! More importantly, I love my art and the process so much more!
I definitely agree with this as someone who is trying to make it as an artist (and is also neurodivergent). I never liked having to manage my accounts and I have a terribly hard time doing so. When my phone's permissions changed and I was no longer able to access my school's wifi (annoying but wtf am I to do), I started deeply questioning the need to post on a lot of social media sites. Nobody's going to see them anyway.
My biggest issue with Instagram, however, is the compression of images--it's even harder for someone to care about your art if all the detail is gone. It's clear they never cared about _image sharing platform_ in the first place.
You have no idea how much I needed to hear this right now. Thank you for all that you do, Cat.
I knew I wasn't the only one feeling this way! It's unfortunate how relatable it is.
Yeah in the real world we deal with galleries and now online we deal with instagram! Same thing all over again. I guess TH-cam is our only choice now. They call us content creators and influencers instead of artists. I have a reel ( not even a video)that got more likes than I ever got with any image and it changed nothing for my wallet. I have never sold anything online. All my art sells in the real world. Now I can't even post pictures. If one day instagram dissapear all our work will go to trash! Art is worth it but a platform I don't think so.
Definitely needed this. I've been struggling against the Algorithm for years. I mean, I only have like 360 followers, so not a big audience anyway but I let it get to me more than once when I'd post a new painting and get only 12 likes. It's nice to know that it wasn't me doing something wrong or that my paintings are terrible (well, they might be. I don't think I can judge well)
I am so grateful you uploaded this video because...omg. It was like I was listening to a recording of myself. My story is a little different but I definitely reate to the psychological effects. Had to see a therapist about it (and still do!) and I'm embarrassed how many nights I've tortured my anti-social media partner talking about my hang ups with an app I literally HATE lmao. Thank you for making me feel not so alone!!
At this point I don't really have the patience to keep up with instagram.
It's just not profitable for artists. I was able to get a small following for awhile but when I found out that the hashtags don't really affect the amount of views you get and how Facebook is constantly making bad decisions for the platform I just finally said that it's not worth it to upload my content to it constantly. And I'm still debating whether or not I want to keep the app or delete it all together.
Instagram feels like a rat race to me! 🤣 " It feels like there's this pressure to constantly be visible on the app to stay "relevent" which i feel to be so twisted to put onto users. Im now seeing that all this is designed on purpose. Instagram is short for instant gratification. I like to take my time with my art work and let inspiration come to me organically and naturally in the timing that it does, so really I don't post super frequently. When I do finish a piece and come back to share Instagram takes it as "ohh you've been inactive for too long, so we aren't going to push your post out. It's a game I don't wanna play.
Great video! ♥️
Being an artist myself, I totally understand where you’re coming from. It feels no matter how hard you work or how good your art is it’s hard to reach new people and grow your audience because of the horrible algorithm. The only artists that are doing okay are the ones who ride trends and draw fanart all the time…not my thing. I’m honestly fed up with Instagram at this point and I haven’t been on the app in over a month.
We need a new photo sharing platform…it’s getting really hard out here :(
It's so disappointing how all of these platforms changed so much...!
I was spending 10% of my time painting and 90% of my time making promo videos for social media and was miserable!! It never led to any sales and prevented me from doing things I love.
IG has always rubbed me the wrong way precisely for the lack of sharing ability; say all what you want about how Twitter is screwing artists over, they really can't do worse than whatever bullshit IG puts anyone through just so random chance can maybe put your art in front of someone's eyes. It's also a platforms that feels chillingly superficial to me in general; due to the focus on pictures, the vast majority of people that I see there are really just sharing aesthetic photos instead of, well, reality. It was to a point where I don't even like calling it social media; at least most other social media actually facilitate a connection.
I really feel that crushing feeling of having to deal with it because you're the only one supporting a family at this difficult time, too. I graduated in the middle of the pandemic and almost immediately became the sole provider to a family of 3 with 3 cats, and at the worst of it, I would wake up so stressed that my limbs feel like they're cold and dead as I force myself to juggle 3-4 commissions at one time, constantly. I feel like many artists would hate me for saying this, but I really don't want art to be my full time job, I really would rather have a job so that I can keep art as a passion. The grind is the grind. I'm *immensely* grateful that commissions have kept my family afloat and fed, but damn I sure don't have the therapy to deal with this for the rest of my life! Now the only thing that keeps me sane and chugging along is... I don't follow the insane pace that is art Twitter. I already sold my soul enough for this, the least I can do for myself is keep the rest.
Thanks for making this, it touched on a lot of my own experiences and was validating! Instagram is my main platform and source of income, and *puts on tinfoil hat* I feel like ever-shifting new protocols for the type of posts ( frequent, video, has a human face in it, etc) are designed to keep us so busy we cannot diversify platforms easily, remain on insta and eventually pay to keep our own jobs making THEIR platform interesting. its cartoon evil genius level, really. I simply do not have the time to keep up my insta and pay my bills while also trying to grow a new following from zero elsewhere on top of physically making art, consistently and at a high quality.. you cant even re-post tiktoks because they downgrade things with the watermark, strike things with audio from off insta etc.
My final gripe is more generalized, but I truly find myself with a hollow sort of horror around adapting art to video. Sure, process is nice to watch, I make process videos myself, because Ive had to..but the full magic of a painting is NOT seeing the process, its seeing the painting as a whole. Taking time to live and feel in the image, without the artist- a personal connection with the work. If the "medium is the message" what does the 30 second process video tell us about a painting? I feel often that it diminishes the emotional and narrative impact of the imagery. I think there is a LOT to say about all of this and I could rant for many more paragraphs but Ive been typing too long and my overlords demand tribute at 12PM, three days a week or else...;)
You've made some amazing points and actually caused me to realise a lot of stuff...I remember having a thought years ago about social media and artists, I thought 'how did artists sell their art before social media, or even the Internet as a whole?'. Just goes to show how we've been sucked into social media and this idea of building a following or increasing engagement, yuck I hate saying that 😂 but yeah, thanks for this video, I think I'll get rid of my FB and IG and actually concentrate on my art properly 👍
I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one who felt that SUDDEN extreme drop in IG engagement. I almost thought I was imaging it. I was doing so well slowly growing my platforms as a freelancer and its felt like a massive wall was dropped in front of me that I just cannot climb. my IG has been stagnant and losing interaction ever since and it is the most defeating thing
I don't like Instagram but I could never really explain why
And then Cat explained lack of community and everything clicked
Instagram just feels like a void to throw art in the likes and follows just feel cheaper there than any other platform
Yeah! It’s a void- I want to see my friends and new people- but I don’t!
it is really crazy to see artists i really look up to go through the same things that i did. i had a similar break back in 2020 from posting art on pretty much all social media. i think it's a combination of social media explicitly being not for art, and also being unwilling/unable to branch out to more art-focused sites (dare i mention the dreaded D place, which now has ALSO succumbed to algorithm problems).
the best thing to do is to not play the game. make art for yourself as much as you can.
As soon as I saw the headline I was PUMPED to hear your take- fully agree. I’m leaving this comment section to delete mine also. I have been grinding away for 8 years and I topped out at 880 “followers” two years ago. Haven’t broken that since. I’m not exactly amazing but I’m not terrible and it’s a waste of my time and almost all other artists I know are struggling with the platform. Furthermore, it is a toxic misrepresentation of how to value artist and art in general. I wouldn’t be surprised if this time in art history is viewed as the dark ages are; a time learned from but most of it’s values and practices forgotten or seen as barbaric.
I think you are right about us being in the dark ages, haha.
I loved everything about this video, thank you! Yesterday I suddenly felt SO anxious about Instagram Reels and was just compulsively checking the view count/ likes ratio. It was almost 11pm and I was still checking that damn number like???? I realised then that this just wasn't healthy for me. I'm now going to stop posting reels altogether and just focus on sharing art to my teeny tiny pool of followers (it's less than 100 right now haha). I'm not expecting to grow or reach people but whatever. I don't want to play Instagram's silly games that literally KILL creativity...
Just look at your reels feed and you'll see the same 5 sounds recycled over and over 🙄
It's always amazing to understand how much control these platforms have over our brains and our lives.
By the way, l've watched a bunch of your videos over the last few days and I really enjoy them.
The thing is… Costumer/potential client mostly use Instagram…
It's just almost impossible to get a client on the other platform, specially in my country. Its just sucks…
This is so helpful. Thank you. I literally just created a TikTok about Insta and you are filling in so many blanks for me.
Yep, all true. Thank you for this video. So sorry it affected you this hard physically and emotionally. Low engagement - for whatever reason - is certainly not a reflection of you as an artist or a person. I am still playing the reel game because it’s business, but I low key despise it. Have been focusing on TH-cam since 2020 and it’s been a much more positive experience 😊
Yesssss! I needed this so badly, really feeling not great lately about the work I've done versus where I'm at. Your common sense and humor always make things seem less terrifying somehow. Instagram was a nightmare, I got out of there just before reels became a thing.
I went from getting 200 likes of a random pic of a cow from a holiday trip into going from 1400 likes on art posts to literally around 20, then watched your video and deactivated that shit. Not even feeling bad about it but it got me feeling insecure for a while.
thank you so much for talking about this. instagram was the first social media I used and it was always the main one for me, as I got the hang of it early on so it stuck with me best. my different accounts through the years were all pretty successful, but more importantly brought me genuine joy, right up until mid-2020. I always thought it was just me losing motivation that made the account I was previously doing so well on fail. though I knew instagram’s algorithm was to blame, I thought I was at fault for not adjusting to the change efficiently. this video feels like a revelation. it’s so disappointing because so much of what I know and was good at was on that platform, but the changes just aren’t for me :// it’s bittersweet, relieving but distressing. thank you cat ❤️
It is never the user, always the algorithm. They are literally designed to manipulate the user, it's not even that subtle.
@@bluewren65 yes, and while I was always aware of that, I felt the pressure to change my content with no motivation to do so. the lack of motivation is what felt like it was my fault. now I understand though that it was because I just was not a fan of the changes. when I said it before seeing this video, it felt like I was just making excuses. absolutely never said it was subtle. I was aware of it, but still felt a need to overcome it.
@@spikenoid Please don't think that I was implying that you are unintelligent or stupid for continuing to use social media. It's like you get trapped in a web of toxicity that you can't escape and I know the feeling well. It's the most cynical way of running a business. They should be honest, stop calling it social media and start calling it advertising media. There really is nothing social about it when everyone is jockeying for attention and every 3rd post is a literal paid ad. Imagine if in a face to face situation people kept interjecting into the conversation every 3 minutes to tell you about a great product that "you just need to have in your life". You tell them that you are not interested and it's not the purpose of this social event to have their wares shoved in your face and yet, 3 minutes later they are back. You'd very quickly either punch them in the face or leave. What you are describing mirrors my own experience with FB back in the day. I had an artist page and it was gaining a bit of traction, then they changed the algorithm and I realised that no one who was following me was seeing my posts. I persisted and tried to change things but to no avail and I realised it was all a giant fool's errand. I switched to instagram and I really loved it, until Zuckerberg bought it and the same garbage that drove me away from FB started up on IG. I still have IG but I don't really use it other than to post still images and run.
I use to think it was my art too but, nope it's Instagram's busted algorithm which, yeah I do agree it's super manipulative. The fact that Instagram picks and chooses what you can and cannot see on your feed is just disgusting. Also, Instagram updated their app to add a sensitive control feature and they were automatically setting people's accounts to "limited". I got my account set to limited by default and I can't even turn it off.
@@CrazyAlienLady051 How do you know if your account has been set to limited? Also, what does that mean in terms of how the account functions?
You actually went through all the reasons that I hate Instagram! I’ve been telling people for years why I didn’t wanna get on there, and they kept acting like I was exaggerating or something. I’ve had a page now for about 6 years, but rarely use it because It’s a huge headache for all the reasons you stated.
And I wish I could see all of the artists that I follow, instead of a bunch of useless ads for things that I don’t even have interest in. I don’t know how some people can spend hours on IG. it’s so boring, never showing more than 4 or so folks that I follow.
Hey, I thought I was the only one feeling the same really sucks how the algorithm snuffs creativity
Really glad it resonated
It was around 2012 that I began to see how social media was not set up to benefit creators of any type of content. The problem is, creators, artists specifically, neeeeed to get their work to general masses, and reach patrons- that is NOT what social media platforms are good for... :/ They set up rule for engagement- that that is not to keep their creative coming forth- it is nearly impossible for a new content creator to break in as an individual without foreknowledge of the algorithms.
I keep thinking we need a social network for artists/creators but then I remember deviantART kinda went to shit and is probably fueled by an engagement-based algorithm by now.
I sort of started losing interest on ig back in uni cause I was too busy to keep track of it but would post here and there.
Finally completely dropped using it when they came up w reels cause I read an article describing how ig was expecting ppl to deal with their new algorithm and I decided i wasn't about to use ig as a full-time job just to get some few likes hahs
Is it ironic I'm commenting to help the alg0r1thm??? Ugh. Everyone should see this. I just found you and love your content. Thank you from a fellow mainer.
Idk what to say but here’s some engagement bc you’re BADASS!
Happy to hear the rant. Your work is lovely, and your own creative drive should never be held like a carrot on a stick by some social media company.
This was a really helpful breakdown - thank you for this deep-dive!
I was aware that Instagram is terrible for artists, as well as everyone else, but I didn't know about the 'pivot to video' and its impact on media companies.
THANK YOU FOR THIS! I'm a musician/producer/engineer and maaaan it took me so long to get that right, and to pigeonhole my art in to the concept of "content creation" in order to gain followers on these platforms has certainly stifled my growth and I believe it's done the exact opposite of what I wanted it all to do for me!
You gave me a lot to think about. Thank you for taking the time to make and post this video.
i am a follower of THOUSANDS of artists and when I open my feed I only see the same 5 accounts.
it's been years since i gave up on posting on my personal acc 'cause i used it for sharing stuff with ppl i like, but now i can't even do that.
now i just use it to post photos of my stuff to link to clients when they contact me. nobody has even reached me there.
what a waste of tool, it used to be ok there.
This was so interesting as a non artist who's really into learning about how the internet keeps screwing artists over.
I don't mind art reels if they are genuinely interesting, but I HATE the ones that feel like I'm watching a magic trick or a TV ad - and I especially hate the gross robot voiceovers. That disturbs me on a molecular level. Like the second I hear that, I want to unfollow that person and throw my phone into the ocean.
Oh heck yeah, I'm all about the things you're saying here.
Love to hear it and I love to read responses in the comments, I'm so thoroughly engaged by your videos that I'm almost in tears.
I'm always happy to see that little bell indicating a new upload from you.
I'mma get back to watching the video now, I just thought I'd take a moment to pour some thoughts into the comments.
I FEEL YOUR PAIN!
I'm a designer and I just had a dramatic (artist 😂) meltdown bc I'm so SICK of the Performance art bullshit we have to do to please people who don't even support our business
The amount of work that has to go into "content creation" (fucking hate those words!!) Has completely sucked my creative energy to the point I can't even focus on designing anymore. All that work for the algorithm to just reject you or keep you in the demographic of creepy men instead of customers
What pisses me off is that IG had the gall to add new features to photo format posts (adding music and topics) just for them to not push it to peoples feeds 😭😭😭 feels almost like a cover up
This was comforting to watch, thanks.
Ok this lighting though? Beautiful video. Thank you so much for making this. I too felt like instagram had deemed I was unworthy and therefore it was true. Thank you for articulating that and for the in depth history of the push for video. Subscribed and I literally want to share this video with every person I know who whether they work in social or not.
Yea I used to get really annoyed/depressed that I could never build an audience on IG. Eventually I saw it for what it was, I still share stuff on their but I am content with my very limited engagement. I am lucky tho, I don't need to promote myself online in the same what other freelancers do. Great video as always Cat!
Whole 35 Minutes and I know this is going to be good
I gave up on Instagram years ago as an artist and an independent graphic designer; I'm glad you made this video to put words to how so many other artists feel.
Thank you so much for this video. I have been feeling the anxiety and starting to doubt if I’m a good artist at all, since engagement with my posts dropped dramatically. I have even tried doing a few reels and they get even less engagement!! I have been seriously considering taking a long break from IG, but then I don’t know where I can showcase my work. I don’t like doing videos, I just don’t have the knack for it. I just want to paint my pretty pictures and have people who like them , give them a new home. 😔
I felt this to my core! I've been making art on my Instagram for a year now, and have so many art friends and myself who are extremely frustrated. Best wishes to you and thank you for continuing to use your platform to support us!
Cat , brilliant video. I keep coming back to this every few months . Please can you update us on this subject 🙏🙏🙏🙏
I also had a lot of chronic pain problems as an artist, same as you. surgery and the shots just weren't helping anymore. I'm doing a lot better since seeing a massage therapist and chiropractor that did xrays, (turns out i was developing arthritis in my neck, and that was moving down to my extremities.) I really recommend those if theyre available to you. there is hope to get better without going under the knife.
Liking before I watch, because I already know this is going to be good stuff.
Fuck, as a woodworker, that (@22:00) is how I feel about instagram: You have to perform several tasks by yourself that would be easily done if Facebook didn't barricaded every way out of their ecosystem.
The story links thing was actually changed recently so anybody can have links in their stories
Thank you for this. I mostly keep my head on my art and not on social media but lately, I’ve been conflating online performance with the quality of my art. Imposter syndrome has cropped up alongside feelings of inadequacy. I have to remind myself of everything you’ve said here. Thank you. Always a pleasure to enjoy your art and videos.
Bravo, I just love your videos. So much of this stuff needs to be said and heard, thanks for sharing. It brings a lot of hope to us artists who are adverse to social media.
thank you for putting some of these thoughts out in the open. i left six years ago and often feel pressured as an artist to return. there are some artists i know who exclusively sell on instagram because they felt as though the platform forced their hand
Commenting for support, this video was awesome
hell yeah. I quit insta after the algorithm change and went to an in-person arts festival recently, where I talked to hundreds of people about my work. People told me that I was the only person doing that (I literally brought my work there), where everyone else was sitting behind piles of their work or whatever, not talking to people and expecting their fans to come running up for engagement. (they did, definitely). I had another artist tell me that it's bad not to be on Instagram, that she gets all her work from instagram, but I don't give a fuck. It doesn't work for me, it doesn't fit my morals or lifestyle, and it caused me serious performance and life issues. I've made so much work since then, not doomscrolling on tiny squares, that I have time to make larger projects, study work and just become a better artist. Thanks for putting this video into words/speech, I appreciate it.
Yup every summer, I just get up to go to the Allen Town art festival now. Don't even open Instagram as much as I use to. 😂
Festivals and other vending events are where I’m coming from. I joined IG years ago to try to scale up from those, but it’s just been depressing and useless for all the reasons that Cat stated. 😩
I quit Facebook in 2016-2017, quit Instagram in early 2020, and lurk Twitter like twice a week. I'm so done with social media outside of the group chats I have with my close friends.
Doing a good job of convincing me to delete my Insta again
I wish I could give you a hug. Thank you for sharing this. I've been planning to start posting more on IG to start to build my own career. Now I know to try somewhere other than IG. I think you just saved me a lot of time and heartache.
Instagram is a great platform, it just depends on how you use it, and your attitude towards it. I wouldn't let this video discourage you. You get out of it what you put into it. Good luck 🙂
Great video! Instagram is a frustrating beast with how large and attention-dominating it is. I'm a hobbyist photographer, and I find myself constantly stymied by not having an Insta account. Not even for difficulty in sharing my work, but in how many photographers basically only have Insta for online presence, so you have to be on their to even see their work. There's got to be a better way for artists to work, but I genuinely don't know what it IS in these platform dominated times...
Oh yeah, and the usual catchall answer that is Twitter just got fucking bought by Elon Musk, so we might not have that anymore either.
Wee.
I have been waiting for this.
I just post work with no expectations. The minute you rely on your work for money - you are doomed to be derivative. You are on your own path working out your own aesthetic, craft and narrative challenges in the work. Anything else is false. When I started in the 80's there were no social media platforms but there were still pressures to make certain kinds of work to get attention. I tried to follow those trends. At that time it was conceptual art and feminism so I made it. The work became more and more referential and difficult and I managed to whittle my audience down to about five people with maybe one who actually understood the message. The rest were friends. What I came to understand over time is you make art for yourself. Look at art history, perhaps you are destined to play the long game.
I have about 11k followers on IG right now. Once reels became a thing, my videos went from getting 10k views to like 50. Now I get like 200 likes no matter what I post which is less engagement than when I had 500 followers 😅 also I just hate using IG as a user!
I liked instagram a lot until about half a year ago or so. I would use it to post my paintings and see paintings that other artists posted. Pretty recently I've started to see an ad after every two or three posts from the artists I follow (and those sometimes also post stuff that doesn't interest me, like photos of their pets or parties), so I feel I'm mostly scrolling through ads now. I hate ads, so why would I spend time scrolling through them? Instagram used to be for art, since facebook bought it it has been catering to social crap, brands, commercial crap. Yes, reels are completely ridiculous.
Threads is gonna suffer the same fate thanks to Mark not knowing how to properly run a website much like Elon. All they see is profits. They Don care about being user friendly. This is why billionaires should have total control over the internet.
Solid alright, I've noticed it's been really hard to have posts really go anywhere on insta it sucks how much a monopoly there is on the internet I hope it gets better it really would suck having something so grand be snuffed out by greed nonsense
I got tired of playing the game YEARS ago. I'm glad I'm just a writer and don't really need to bother with IG. I make a post every time a new book is out just so there's something there if people find it, but otherwise I don't touch it.
Thankyou for making this ♥️ I've been frustrated by instagram since Facebook bought it and the gentrification process that proceeded it. Artists made it cool, then corporations ruined it :(
Trying to grow by instagram as a person in australian fashion and australian music has honestly been demoralizing and humiliating. I don't understand why my content doesn't do well (and neither do my established colleagues) , and I can't afford to spend the time/money to change that.
The statistics and insights ig provides are also sub par compared to literally every other platform!!!!
Thankyou for coming to my ted talk
Thank you for sharing your experience. 🖤 It really does suck how the algorithm works against people trying to make a living. On my end of IG, in the tarot community, there are security issues. Lots of scammers impersonating content creators and tarot artists. Some have left, others can't afford to leave.
Just goes to show how little many of these platforms care about their users. 😞
This is very insightful, thank you! I tried using Instagram recently and since I'm a very small artist even on other platforms it's been such a bad experience. The only comments I've gotten are scam accounts preying on small creators. And I've seen big artists losing followers and giving up too. Twitter isn't as bad but I wouldn't say it isn't great for artists either.
(Funnily enough, the most engagement I usually get on my art is still on Tumblr even after the porn ban and mass exodus. The tag system still works and there aren't algorithms to fuck you over 😭)
This hits so hard. I'm still on Insta, but only barely. Comments turned off, and I only post and leave. It still yields the occasional commission, so I think it's worth keeping for now...but we'll see how long!
One of the best explanations of social media I've ever seen.
I am on Insta - and yes I tried the IGTV live streaming twice to rapturous tumbleweed.
I was waiting for you to talk about how Instagram changes the way you work, and in what format - and you didn't disappoint! This is what disturbs me about IG the most - that you get square sketchbooks for Inktober etc (yes that is it's own shitshow) and the idea that I have to be a performing organ-grinders monkey with video doesn't sit well with me - mentally. I found that my small image audience - there is still some, but yeah it's tiny - likes representational things, hyper-realism, detail, and weirdly...sewing? MASSIVE sewing community on there, I found by accident....
This means I've had a love/hate for a long time, because I feel I'm making work for an algorithm than never pays me....I get angry, do some abstract shit...it bombs, rinse, repeat. Chasing those likes is a fool's game, creatively. Monetarily is a different matter....but if you aren't doing the work you want to make, you just get disenfranchised and stop posting. I do that all the time....the funny thing is IG does push lapsed posters for a bit, then drops you...and wants you to hamsterwheel posts evey day. I refuse to do that.
Also weirdly it rejects some forms of image posts. It HATES line art, I regularly get line art rejected. Also it hates using your original dimensions, even with the weird crop...even if there's a IG ratio just like it. Then it goes through fine. I sometimes had to post a colour image in square format before it would allow me to post another line art/ink image. So it's doing something weird there - pushing people to work/post in squares, colour, or the existing other ratios. It wants to control WHAT you post as well!
This video helped me a lot as a very small artist whose engagement has slowed to almost nothing on Instagram recently. Instagram was always the best platform for my art and where I saw the most growth, and I really thought my work was just plateauing or maybe I wasn't putting out enough work, but it's refreshing to hear the problem isn't just me, thank you.
I was an early adopter myself on MySpace and it blew up my sales and commissions. MySpace then fell out of favor for Facebook. After that happened, I honestly haven’t had any social media related sales or commissions since. I’m still doing art, but Facebook is for family and people that already know me. I got on Instagram late, like about four years ago. I have a few reps, galleries and publishers follow me. Zero related work or sales from that. Most of the people that frequently comment on there, already follow me on Twitter and Facebook. I’ve written it all off and it’s for the best. I know most social media is only usable until they start taking on stockholders. Then it all shits the bed quick.
Thank you SO much for making this. I've always struggled with IG, and just thought it was me.
This is Gold!