Social Media Is Killing Your Motivation - Know The Warning Signs

[Music] thank you [Music] hey guys it's that from Mr pixel and welcome back yesterday a new social media app was released by meta called threads and it's doing better than a lot of other startup uh social media apps are generally do because it's basically just porting everybody over from Instagram now I don't want to talk about that in particular although it's an interesting subject for me because I am Canadian after all and if you've heard anything about Bill c18 my country is currently at war with Mark Zuckerberg and meta but we'll save that for another day what it did do however because I moved my account over and I started posting some stuff just to get the ball rolling and all that but um in moving over to this new social media it reminded me of a topic that I and you most likely as well are very much aware of and very impacted by but something that every now and then we can start taking for granted and this is something that can really influence our artistic Journey our feelings of artistic worth and from the perspective of a YouTuber of a teacher of somebody who consults with artists and businesses and all that kind of stuff and helps people to get their artistic careers off the ground um can be pretty scary and I don't mean to I'm not saying this to to freak you out I'm saying this because I can see how how much of an impact this has on artists particularly artists that are younger that are looking for voice the same artists who I might argue have been very impacted or were very impacted and had the strongest reactions to artificial intelligence to AI majority dally that kind of stuff uh subject will I which I plan on making a follow-up video to very very soon but what do I mean by this what do I mean by these scary and damaging aspects of social media am I going to come out and say social media is evil social media is is the devil not entirely no there are positive aspects to social media if if the person who is using social media can navigate it in a way that does not completely take over their feeling of self-worth but unfortunately so many of us artists are out there right now younger artists particularly I'd say anybody under the age of 25 to 30 mostly 25 or younger grew up in a world where social media was always there or at least it's it's always been a part of the landscape growing up for me it wasn't for me there was no social media to me there were newspapers there was conversations with friends they were get-togethers there was the General news on TV but we didn't have social media we could not publish ourselves our lives as we could in the past as as we do now where that that incredibly compelling and Incredibly exciting experience and being able to share your life with other people and as artists to share our art to make a name for ourselves to get out there that we all jump onto this platform and immediately adopt that platform particularly the younger ones we adopt this platform as the be all end-all way for us to get our name out there and the moment we do that beat social media being what it is social media wanting to have as many users as possible like meta now you know Mark Zuckerberg boasting that 10 million people adopted the app overnight I'm sure a lot of that were automatic ports for what it's worth but um that the immediacy at which we are exposed to this over saturation of presence of artists online and I'm speaking particularly to artists in this context we almost immediately start to feel like we are a needle in a haystack no we're a needle in a haystack of needles and um we immediately become extremely overly aware of just how many talented artists are out there this is one of the big detriments this is one of the big damaging aspects of social media we become hyper aware of our competition and that hyper awareness also manifests into hypersensitivity to that competition as well and I would argue that a lot of artists from my generation artists that grew up I was born in the 70s but I really started to get into things professionally in the 90s and into the into the turn of the the Millennium um by that point I had already when I was making a name for myself ignorance was Bliss to a certain degree yes I was aware of great celebrity artists out there and I was aware of my peers in school and my colleagues at work and stuff like that that were talented but I wasn't overwhelmed by that I was just aware of the fact that other people exist and there's Talent out there but I wasn't seeing masterpieces every single day by by Young or aspiring artists or people that are a little bit older that were these celebrity artists I wasn't seeing this kind of stuff every day I wasn't looking at thousands and thousands of images that made my artwork pale in comparison you become a slave to your ego as a result of that because you're constantly being you're constantly having your ego attacked and if you if you are a 15 year old if you're a 20 year old if you're a 25 year old and you haven't yet made a name for yourself and you are hyper aware of all of these super professionals who've been doing these doing this for decades the feeling that I'm sure many of you face is why the hell bother why the hell bother it's already an over saturated industry why bother I art making a name for yourself making a living for yourself in and of itself is a very challenging career path at least that's the that's the reputation that art has had over the years but don't forget that might be a bit of an outdated perspective because the careers in art have changed significantly and I would argue that there's a lot more employment today there are many more opportunities today than they were back when I was when I was young but um why bother and it's that same why bother reaction that that AI elicited and a lot of us didn't particularly the younger artists in fact one of the main comments that I got one of the ones that I addressed quite a bit in the comments because there were a lot of comments on those on my AI videos was it's really easy for you to sit up on your Mountain Adam and you know somebody who's already an established professional somebody who runs a YouTube channel and somebody who runs an online school and somebody's been working in the industry for decades to be able to say keep doing it don't don't don't be don't be bothered by this AI crap it's easy for you to say because you're so disconnected from society you're so disconnected from how this is impacting us oh no I am in fact I would argue I'm a lot more sensitive to it because I know what the world felt like before it existed and I'm very very much aware of how different huge Innovations big leaps in technology and advancements in the world of Art come at a cost very often and sometimes that cost is hey Adam you spent the first 20 years of your life chasing after a traditional animation career but now we don't need that anymore we're looking for people who can do that on a computer and people who know 3D software and you get the rug pulled out from under you I was young I was trying to make a name for myself I was trying to get into the industry and that company in my city because you had to work locally most of the time online work was not as what wasn't as common as it is today that company that hired thousands of people thousands of traditional animators that company that was going to give me a job in the industry closed its doors like literally laid off thousands of people in just close to stores I remember when that happened I remember how devastated Montreal's work to found this out and how devastated people were all across the planet I am this peon this Pawn on this chessboard and on the other side of the chessboard is nothing but queens and I am completely outranked and there's no bloody way in hell I'm gonna survive so I had to scramble to find a way to integrate myself into this new industry and this is exactly what happened with people with AI and this is what social media does it makes you scramble it makes you lose your footing it makes you chase after whatever it is you think you need you're essentially chasing after an algorithm in the case of AI it can be even more frightening because that algorithm is a super computer that you are not that algorithm is is a brain that can that can compile and combine millions and millions of images in seconds and manifest that into a piece of artwork and you're sitting there looking looking forward at Decades of practice that's going to take for you to even be able to manage to do something like that and you think to yourself why bother when I joined meta yesterday I did so knowing that Mark Zuckerberg that meta wants me to engage as much as possible so how is it going to do that it's going to do so by number one making it very easy to get addicted to the app by porting over everybody I already made from Instagram there's no starting over necessary easy so that's jobs done secondly it's going to promote me as much as possible to give me that dopamine hit of popularity I'm gonna get hundreds and hundreds of followers I'm going to get lots and lots of engagement on everything that I post and it's going to make me feel like I've just joined I've just joined something that's giving me that immediate satisfaction I'm getting those results I dreamed of I'm getting that little feeling that little that little hit of Fame that I want as an artist and that might be fine and dandy for now but once that social media just like Instagram just like Twitter just like Facebook just like anything it's gonna become oversaturated and when it becomes oversaturated my views are going to start to drop and that's where the danger happens because as soon as that as soon as when I've had that taste of Fame when I've had that that drug hit and I've got that high when that high starts to drop you start to get desperate to get that feeling back it's just like drugs you know at the beginning you get high but after a while you're not getting high anymore you're just using it to stay normal you're using it to feel not low because you're because your body's ability to keep itself sustained to keep your own happiness sustained dies off those glands that produce dopamine that give you that give you that regularity in your body are no longer functioning properly something for you people with ADHD to pay particular attention to uh healthy gamer GG has a great video on ADHD ADHD and drugs so I definitely recommend you check it out there well that's exactly the same thing that's happening with social media if you combine that emotional and chemical control that social media has at the same time that you are also going through that incredibly challenging and I'm talking seriously challenging phase in your life where you are forging your self-identity high school college early University that kind of stuff it is starting to it's starting to shape you as a human being furthermore it is severely damaging your integrity your confidence in self think about it if you have a parent that's constantly telling you what you're doing wrong if you have a friend who's constantly telling you what you're doing wrong if you have a partner in your life that's constantly telling you what you're doing wrong at a certain point you can't even rely on your own opinion of self and that to an artist is Kryptonite for your style it's Kryptonite for your integrity for the decisions that you make as an artist one of the things that I find very interesting but very necessary as a teacher as a mentor as a person who does Consultants with people is how often I turn to an artist and I tell them how good they are and they look at me with a complete looking of bafflement I'll look at their artwork and they're they're producing gorgeous professional work stuff that'll get them jobs real fast and they've never approached a job because they didn't feel they were good enough and I look up and I say you're good enough you're good enough five years ago now you're overqualified and they look at me and they go you really think so sitting there going what the hell do you mean do I really think so I mean can't you see it for yourself well that's the point you can't see it for yourself because you've been so programmed to judge yourself according to the reaction of others that you you have you are too afraid to make that decision for yourself and it's amazing how emotional sometimes those moments can become with with artists that I work with and I said I tell them how good I tell them that they're really amazing and that they're ready for the industry or I tell them that you just need to do this and that and you're good to go man you just need to polish up a few things and they look at me like they're they're overwhelmed by that I'm sitting there going I'm amazed to hear that yeah growing up I was it meant a lot to me to hear a professionals say yeah you're good you're ready or just that getting that confirmation of being hired at a studio so that I knew that I was actually I actually have I have marketable skills now I can actually get paid for what I'm doing I've gotten good enough but the but I always knew who I was I always knew what I liked I always had a strong sense of self artistically and furthermore that artistic Journey that I went through was a very introverted one I sat in my place and I I played around with the things that I like and I I I was influenced by things that I was exposed to but not to the degree where I couldn't tell my own worth I mean I did need feedback from people but not that bad and that to me is telling me that that like button the number of likes that you're getting the number of comments the number of follows that you're getting in social media has a direct correlation to the decisions that you're making in order to try to chase after that approval you're chasing after that high and I've realized that as the years passed the more the more the longer I teach and the longer I run my school the more I realize that one of my fundamental roles as an artist is to teach people who they are who are you as an artist being able to be able to look at a person's artwork and expose them to the truth of themself and when you do when I do that very often that artist will say well yeah that's kind of the stuff I've always loved I've always kind of been good at that stuff but I didn't think that that would get me a job and I'd say why not why did you think that wasn't Market why did you think that wasn't a good enough skill why did you think that was going to cause you problems why did you think that was going to interfere with your employability or your popularity and they would say it's because that's not what I see online I see people that are so much better at me and I see better at you at what right and then they start to actually look deeper inside themselves look deeper inside their creations and realize just how much style how much Vision they truly have and that is sometimes very often a revelation to artists because they never had a chance to figure that out for themselves as a YouTuber my content is a very good example of that my video is now running at least I've been sitting I'm looking at my at my recorder right now and I'm at 21 minutes and 13 seconds it might be a bit shorter for you I might have done a bit of editing on this but I'm at 21 minutes I've already passed the recommended length of a video by seven minutes and I usually pass it by 20 or 30 minutes sometimes my art talks go on for a very long time is that doing me any favors I look at the watch time on my videos and I very often see that the the watch time takes a drastic drop around the 10 to 15 minute mark that algorithm is telling me exactly how many of you are still paying attention right now probably most of you have tuned out by now and if you're still sticking around thank you I appreciate you I appreciate your patience and your support but I know and I'm aware that algorithmically YouTube is telling me it's time to shut up and wrap things up Adam but here's the thing I don't give a what YouTube thinks I'm not doing this for YouTube I'm not doing this for popularity do you know who I'm doing this for you I'm doing this for you my fellow artist who's who doesn't want to listen to some loud click Beady news from Philip DeFranco although he does what he does beautifully well I'm not I'm this isn't a comedy channel although I love a good laugh as much as the next person this is by artist for artists I'm making this this is this is uh an ecosystem this is an environment for you to listen to some relaxing music Inspire yourself not question your your your artistic decisions or your life decisions it's a place for you to forget about all that crap and sit down and just create something and just Revel in the joy of being a creator and I don't know about you but I don't know a whole lot of creators that get a whole lot done instead instead of it takes me that long to sharpen my pencil figuratively because I draw digitally most of the time now it takes me seven minutes just to just to kind of get my brain on and get get the flow going and sometimes longer so I don't make these videos conveniently short for the algorithm I make these conveniently long for you that you can you can put your pen down you can put your paint brushes down and you can sit back and you can go I accomplished something today I created something today I have I've created a memory something I can look back at for the rest of my life and say hey I did that I need that this is a this is a cozy place to hang out where we can sit down and just share in each other's thoughts and draw and get lost and lost in the thick of it and while we're doing that I share my stories of when I up over and over and over and over again so that you don't feel so bad for up yourself and if and if you're if you post a picture on Instagram or or Twitter or if you make a video on YouTube because you're an up-and-coming art YouTuber yourself or you start a new account on threads and you post a picture and you look down and there's only two likes and one of them is from your mom and the other one's from a bot that is not a means for you nor should it ever be a means for you to say I did it wrong now I need to change my art I need to lose sight of my vision of my message of my purpose as an artist because Mark Zuckerberg didn't like that painting blasphemy in my opinion and you have to realize that in order to gain respect in order to Garner a reputation as an artist in order to build your name in order to become recognizable one of the most important qualities that an artist needs to have is well yes don't suck right you can't just be you can't just practice for two weeks and be fresh Fresh Off The Wagon and still think you're going to get a lot of attention because like every artist like every professional of any kind you have to do the work and you have to get good but what's more important after you've after you've overcome that you take a couple of courses you overcome that and you start to build a name for yourself and you start to build your style the most important thing after that is consistency consistency you have to stick at it you have to keep at it you have to keep going you have to you have to you have to become reliable you have a relationship with your audience and in order to have a relationship a long-term relationship with your audience yes you will change you will evolve you will grow you will improve that's all natural but at the core of who you are you need to remain yourself you need to discover who you are and you need to you need to reliably be who you are am I saying don't rattle the cages and try new things hey should I do Audi I would do audio tech reviews or I do a review for a certain product that might not be art related and it's very eye-opening how some of the comments on some of those videos If I'm doing headphone reviews someone would have actually had some pretty good views on it but I do headphone reviews I would have comments from from regular subscribers artists who follow my channel who get pissed off at me for doing that but I do understand that I am I am I've become relied upon for what I do over the time I forged this life for me I forged this identity for myself on YouTube and online and now all of a sudden I'm just doing something I'm kind of like it almost feels like an abandonment it's like dude you built your channel on on the support of artists and now all of a sudden you're doing something else now you're just changing gears and that really upset people some people who take it too seriously of course I'm not doing that I'm always going to be an art Channel fundamentally but it goes to show how sensitive people are to expecting to to experience you and this brings me back to you right now you're sitting down you're drawing or maybe you're having lunch or maybe you're going for a walk or maybe you're just chilling out in bed playing a chess game whatever I want you if you're sitting there struggling to make a name for yourself if you're struggling to find success in social media if you're struggling to forge an identity for yourself online and every single time you post something online you your artwork is ignored rejected or anything anything negative understand that that has nothing to do with how good you are as an artist at least not not over the long term it has to do with how much of you is in your work and you have to defend that identity of yours you have to defend who you are you have to stand up for yourself and when the algorithm doesn't give you the support that you want you say screw you I know who I am I know what I represent I know what matters to me I know what I want my audience to feel when they look at my artwork I know what I want to communicate to my audience this is what I stand behind you keep on keeping on you keep doing what you're doing and as you do the longer you stay consistent with that the better you'll get the purer that form of self-expression will become you'll Master it your Technique the look The Colors the lines the textures the compositions the poses the facial expressions the designs everything will start to become more and more harmonious you will become extremely fluid at this form of communication you will become more hirable because there's nothing more attractive than somebody that kicks ass at what they do and that has something very unique and meaningful to share with their audience and then as irony would have it the algorithm finds you and this is exactly what happened on my YouTube channel the moment I told YouTube to go themselves and I did what I did and I did it for you and I did it for me and I didn't do it for the algorithm Gods all of a sudden people saw me they didn't see Adam the YouTuber they didn't see Adam the the hot shot they saw Adam the person and the more I became me the more authentic I became as a human being the more people saw that and appreciated it and to me all of the validation that I need to keep going are the messages that I get from you in the comments where you show me appreciation for what I've what I've helped you out with it's the emails that I get it's the conversations I have with students for you to the greatest compliment that I ever get from a student or I get from somebody during a consultation or somebody that I meet in person who's gotten to know me online is I'm very thankful Adam that the person I met in person is the same person I hear online they always say never meet your Heroes right I'm not indirectly calling myself a hero but I'm saying you know like if I met if I if I spoke to Michael Samuels for instance if I spoke to body video which I have and he turned out to be a a egotistical jerk anti-social egotistical jerk I would immediately get turned off of his channel but he isn't He is wonderful and is warm and kind-hearted a person in real life as he is on his channel and it just makes me love him more it makes me more loyal to him and his work and his channel seem to same goes with Ricardo Emig how I got a chance to meet in person as well he's he's got a smile on his face and he's got a personality that is so incredibly warm and so incredibly genuine that you're you walk away from from a conversation with him feeling like you have met your best friend and I'm sure he makes every person he meets feel that way he's such a warm person and that's what matters to me that's what will always matter to me and when I look at his art I see that personality I see that warmth I see that richness I see that depth of humanity resonate through every single everything every single thing he draws and I love his art more as a result of it so you my friend I want you to take a good hard look at yourself look at your artwork look at it from the perspective of somebody trying to understand who you are don't look at it critically as somebody who is trying to figure out how to make themselves more popular your purest most authentic version of yourself is the best version of yourself that you can ever be and the more authentic you are the more people will discover you and the more people will slowly but surely fall in love with you and if you compile compile that Integrity if you compile that over the period of 5 10 15 20 years you'll become a legend all right and with that said I love you all with all my heart and happy painting take care [Music] now [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign thank you [Music] foreign foreign [Music]

Channel: Adam Duff LUCIDPIXUL

Views: 31,658

Keywords: mastering art, amateur vs professional artist, how to get jobs as artist, how to succeed as artist, ai art, how to draw creatures, lovecraft creature design, horror creature design, AI Art, midjourney, the future of art career, social media for artists, how to grow on instagram, how to create concept art, online art school, art class online, how to make money as artist, how social media ruins artists, threads for artists, threads social media, overcoming self-doubt

Id: W-tXaUS6kxU

Length: 34min 27sec (2067 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 16 2023