So Many Sites
Hello! Been doing the social media shuffle, thought I'd write about it here.
Since my entry about online shifts, I've all but deleted my Twitter account. I locked it, deleted basically all my posts on there, and have a pointer towards my link page to places I'm actually active. I'm just sitting on the handle to avoid somebody impersonating me. I don't think I need to retread recent events to explain why even opening the site made me feel sick- I'm done with it, no desire at all to use it in any capacity.
I also feel like it's counterproductive to be making hostile posts towards people who haven't reached this point yet. I felt comfortable doing all this in no small part because I'm established in other places- Tumblr being one, and now Bluesky (where I've been able to grow an active following pretty quickly)! Anyway, be patient with people. Honey and vinegar...
Recently, I decided to start the Bluesky process over again on Pillowfort. I'm taking it a little easier there, just one post a day or so, because the process of using that site is more involved. I'm not doing bad on there so far- I'll see how things are in a month or two and maybe write some tips, but most important seems to be: reblog your work to communities!!
Pillowfort has a cap of success/visibility due to its userbase size (around 180k as of July 2024), but I really support the idea, similarly to how I supported Cohost. Pillowfort has also been around since 2016- I was surprised by this- so I have more faith in its sustainability too.
However things shake out over the next few years with social media, I stand by my idea of spreading your net wide and bracing for site collapse, no matter how big and unsinkable these sites may appear. Not only that, I feel more and more compelled to seek out more ethical places to plant my seeds. I have Mastadon and Cara in my crosshairs for future places to, at a reasonable pace, share my art with others and grow followings.
I'm also trying my very best to interact with the kind comments I'm getting on my archive of art while not falling into old traps. I feel like I've been spending more time on social media than I'd like, but marketing yourself online as an artist requires some amount of this, unfortunately. I'm continuing to try to maintain healthy boundaries- I want to try to disconnect more effectively when I'm drawing. The mobile browser sites are too tempting, so maybe I'll log out of sites on my phone and tablet and only look at them on my desktop computer...