Too many posts, too many reels, too many podcasts, too many emails.
Too many webinars, too many workshops, too many freebies, too many promises, too many buy one get ones, too many discounts, too many fakes, too many songs, too much movement and overall just too much.
Am I the only one to have reached absolute burnout with this oversaturation of media? Too many targeted ads, mediocre content creators, mediocre sales pitches, mediocre products. We are so overexposed to mediocrity. The true gifts, true talents, great products, great ideas never have a chance to rise to the surface and yet we are investing our time, our energy, our money, our attention into things that are only half good. It used to be that the cream of the crop would rise to the top but now there is no cream, just a sad emulsion.
I follow hundreds of people on Instagram but I see one post for every 20 ads. It’s depressing and it’s also overwhelming. I was meant to post on Substack a couple of weeks ago but I didn’t actually have anything to say. Between Christmas and now nothing really happened. My life wasn’t full of thrills and I didn’t draw anything either. I’ve had a break, a long-earned break, but I just wanted to talk really to myself in this blog and ask myself: what can I unsubscribe from? What can I keep watching? If my time was infinite, I can stay following infinite people, infinite subscriptions and infinite YouTube channels, but it isn’t. So in order to streamline my neural activity and in order to protect my attention, I need to cut the chaff.
Where we put our attention, it’s precious, and I believe there are just three categories of things that we should be giving our attention to: our friends and family, our hopes and dreams, and our education and self-improvement. I think everything can fall into one of those categories.
When I first started using Instagram, when it first came out, I made genuine friends on there. But now I have to wade through a sea of adverts of things I really don’t care for or want, just to see one post by my friend that was posted a few days ago. Yes, I can switch to the favourites tab, but by the time I’ve opened Instagram my ability to discern what I was actually meant to do when I got there evaporates like steam.
If I haven’t liked your pictures in a while it’s because I genuinely haven’t seen them. I have, from time to time, intentionally gone into the profiles of the people I follow and liked the pictures and engaged with the things that I’ve found, but it definitely hasn’t been shown on my feed. I have around 1000 people I follow, so this is still quite a task.
But sometimes I really just wish for a smaller, closer-knit group of people. People I can reliably see over and over again. People that inspire me over and over again. But I also want to follow accounts that I can genuinely engage with and who genuinely engage back.
Genuine engagement is one of those things that makes everybody feel good. Of course I love the big accounts with the flashy pictures and the great work and the interesting, funny stories that go on. They’re great for a few seconds, but your comments just disappear into a sea of others. They don’t really matter. You can’t really engage with the creator, just like a celebrity.
What I really want from my social media is friends. I want a few friends that encourage each other, inspire each other and see each other’s work. But the algorithm of infinite ads seems to make this a near impossible experience. I took time out from Instagram for a couple of weeks and I didn’t miss it.
I didn’t worry about things I might have seen had I been on there and I was quite productive in those two weeks. I got a lot of housework done. I got a lot of cooking done. I got a lot of work done, but I got a lot of thinking done too. Thinking that never has room to grow when I constantly distract myself with a swipeable app.
So my plans for this blog, this Substack, it’s not to be perfect. It’s not just to show up every Wednesday and force myself to say something. I’m going to try and do things naturally. If something interesting is happening, if I’m thinking something that I want to share, I’ll share it. Because my friends will see it one way or another. My friends, are always going to be a part of this.
I’m shrinking down. I no longer desire to have loads of followers. I no longer need to engage with big accounts. Our time on this planet is finite, and I’m not going to worry over the things that are artificially made to feel important.
I’m excited to work this year on new projects, new illustrations. I’m excited to see what my friends are making. I’m excited to see them taking a break as well if they need it and not feeling the paranoia of being present. I’m enjoying digging out my old CDs and listening to the music that I like, not the music that comes up automatically recommended to me.
I’m enjoying writing with pen and paper. I’m enjoying playing PlayStation with actual discs. I’m enjoying the paint and the brush in my hand. I’m enjoying cooking. I’m enjoying peanut butter on its own with a spoon. I’m enjoying the droplets of rain that get caught in a spider’s web. I’m enjoying research through books. I’m enjoying the reflections in puddles. I’m enjoying the warmth of an electric blanket on an ice-cold evening and I’m enjoying the silence of those rare moments where I’m not gripped onto my phone.
And I want those moments of joy for you too.
So whether you read this or not, whether you’re subscribed or not, it’s fine. If you enjoy it, come along for the ride. It might not be as you predicted, but sometimes the less predictable things are better.