I have been mulling over a few decisions the last few days. The biggest one is about what role social media plays in my art. I love to share my art and the stuff I find on line, but sometimes ALL the STUFF available is just, too much.
I made the decision to get rid of pinterest and Tumblr today. I started Tumblr to share rants and info that didn’t fit with my regular blog. Before too long I was simply sharing stuff to Tumblr for the hell of it. As for Pinterest, I never really took to it. I also found a ton of unattributed art on both sites. A terrible thing I noticed on Tumblr was that many many images were not being shared with attribution. I found that an art journal image of mine was shared without attribution. Aggravating but also not in keeping with my CC attribution request.
I find that Tumblr is a really nice blogging platform but since I use Typepad to good result I don’t see the point of using Tumblr.
So I deleted my accounts, as of yesterday they are gone. I expected to feel, I don’t know sad about it, but I don’t. I don’t regret it and I’m ready to focus my attention back to the social media that matters to me: my blog. I will keep some sort of presence on Facebook and Twitter but I see those as downtime distractions, for moments where I need to unwind and not think. Maybe laugh and chat with friends.
I started this process months ago when I started to delete twitter accounts that were aggravating to me. There were some tweets that seemed like a rock in my shoe, not really painful or irksome initially but after a few dozen steps were leaving an irritating blister. So I cut them out. I suddenly found that twitter became a more positive experience. I then turned around and did the same on Facebook. Again, it was more positive. I had a group of likeminded, and similarly humored people interacting with me. It was great. At the time this process started I was reading some Audrey Lourde, and there is a quote that I found particularly arresting at this time, “This is an old and primary tool of all oppressors to keep the oppressed occupied with the master's concerns.” I had a personal epiphany while reading some of her essays and my behavior which I won’t bother to share here as it’s not relevant to what I’m writing. The point is that sometimes when I make a decision I can’t be overly concerned with how others feel about it.
I know that some people will be disappointed in my backing away from FB and Twitter and I do feel bad about that, but again it must be done. I will be participating but simply not as much.
I am planning on moving a great deal of my social media time over to G+. I like the format and the amount of learning taht has been going on over there. IF you are interested in joining G+ follow this link and add me I'm here.
