Twitter, Tik Tok, and Facebook, Oh My!

 Use of social media as a tool for self-promotion, to say the least, is something that I grapple with as an artist.  I imagine that many artists and writers share my pain.  How much is too much?  Am I not tweeting enough?  Why did this or that person follow or unfollow?  What are the pitfalls and strengths of Facebook?  How many likes did a post receive?

Sometimes, if I’m being honest, I find myself signing onto Twitter often, in order to check for new followers or view the reception of posts.  Inevitably, I think, why am I doing this?  Am I lost among the weeds?  This shouldn’t matter.  The art speaks for itself.  Don’t worry if people like it or not. 

Maybe I’m too hard on myself, but I realize that I’m awful at social media.  I’ll likely never take to it naturally, and I can’t be the only one who feels this way.  And it’s not so much that I feel this way… I am this way.

The ever-changing dynamics of how to promote online seems, at least to me, a very constant uphill struggle.  There’s an app for this and that, along with a constant barrage of fractured communication methods.  Very little appears simple and straightforward.

I probably sound like an old timer, but… I’m patient… very patient and humble, and it continues to boggle my mind that attention spans of younger individuals are generally so short.  So much information seems to literally exist at our fingertips… but what are we doing with this access? 

I’m very quiet.  And shy.  Introverted.  It’s part of my personality.  I’ll likely always function within a particular bubble.  The perimeters of the bubble may bend to a certain degree, but the edges of the sphere are likely to only allow so much give.  If that hinders me as an artist in the age of social networking, then I may have to accept a slow and steady growth.  Slow and steady wins the race?  Is it even a race?  See what I mean? 

Alas, with all of this in mind, it’s easy to miss the bigger picture.  At the end of the day, I’m me… and I have to remain true to who I inherently am.  I can always do better.  I can always post more or spend more time on various platforms.  What is it that Laura Dern says in Wild at Heart?  “This whole world is wild at heart and weird on top!”

It sure is.  Now, to continue following my heart…

-Don Gaddis, October 8, 2020