Creative Coaching for Musicians

View Original

S3 E56: How Social Media Affects Your Creativity

Rebecca Hass

As an artist, social media can be a real double-edged sword - it’s a great place to connect with others and share our work, but can also be a hugely distracting time and energy suck that takes us away from our creative practices. I talk about some of social media’s potential pitfalls and benefits to your creativity, and give you a few questions to ask yourself, in case your relationship with it needs a revamp.

How are you feeling about social media, and how does it affect your creativity?

Tag me on Instagram @rebecca_hass (or send me an email) to share!

See this content in the original post

MORE FROM REBECCA

RESOURCES MENTIONED

SUBSCRIBE + REVIEW

 iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify

TRANSCRIPT

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 56 of Being a Whole Person. Today we're going to chat about social media, and how it affects our creativity, because there's a lot to consider there, both positive and negative. 

Before I get into it, my usual request, or invitation, to please rate and review the podcast if you've been enjoying it, it really helps an independent show without the budget of a major network to get seen by more people and spread this message that we can take care of ourselves while being creative, and we can be kind to ourselves in the process. So there will be a link in the show notes for that, and you will have my ongoing appreciation. Thank you so much! 

So I've been thinking a lot lately about the role of social media in my life and my creative career. I did a post about this a few weeks ago, saying I was going to start spending less time on social media. I'm kind of getting tired of playing the whole algorithm game of having things be seen, and also of marketing via social media feeling kind of like an obligation that isn't always an even exchange. 

I love being able to share useful information with all of you, having a place to get the word out about my offerings, and connecting with people. That is the most important part that I really don't want to lose. But I also have to be aware of the fact that there's an energy exchange happening, when you're giving a lot of free things via whatever platform and not getting as much back, that can be draining. 

I have seen a lot of friends and colleagues quitting social media entirely, or maybe quitting Facebook, but staying on Instagram, or whatever network they are feeling the most aligned with. I've also seen people taking half the month off of social media, or just kind of reducing their amount of time posting, or setting certain days that they will spend on the app, just Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or whatever. 

I don't plan on leaving social media, I really love connecting with people. I've met dear friends that way, that have blossomed into in-person, really rewarding relationships. So it's not something that I'm planning on leaving, but I do want to experiment with what role is taking in my life, and I'll continue to update you on that. 

I thought this was such an important topic, because I keep hearing these things from people that they are getting tired of social media, and are feeling drained by it. 

Many of you probably have work that you want to share on social media. So this episode is going to talk about both the business art career side of using social media and the personal side. But even if you're not someone who is using it for business, a lot of the stuff to ponder will still be applicable, even if you're just on social media for fun. 

So the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about social media is distraction. It is designed purposefully with addictive qualities that exploit our brains’ need for that little dopamine hit every time we see something new and exciting. I've seen this brought up by other people that only software and drug companies call their customers users, which really does speak to the addictive quality of social media. 

There are lots of tools you can use to help reduce the time that you're spending, like the Self Control app for Mac, or, on your phone, the Freedom app, I think is also for devices rather than just PCs. Also just the screen time controls on your phone. If you're having trouble, it is okay to take measures that are also digital, if that works for you, that's great. 

So, the distraction that I think is most detrimental when it comes to social media is that, if you're somebody who is creating a lot of content in order to help get your work found, that can really take a lot of time and a lot of effort that might be taking you away from the actual art making that you want to be doing. This depends on how you approach it. You can either be creating directly for social media, or you can be sharing work you've already made, which, of course, isn't an extra thing. It's something you're already doing, and you're just sharing it with people. 

There are so many ways to approach this. I'm not going to get into how in this episode, but I fully empathize with you if you're just tired of trying to create for algorithms, because it can really be a zero sum game. So, ask yourself how much time you're actually spending on social media. You can use the timers on the screen time app on the iPhone, or whatever the Android equivalent is, to actually know what these numbers are. Mine are fairly horrifying a lot of the time. Sometimes I just don't even look at them because I don't want to know, and that's totally fine, too. 

But really, what is it taking time from? Is it taking time away from other important things like your creative practice, your work, sleep, things that are more important? That's when you want to look deeply and say, “Okay, do I want to make a change here?” I'll talk more about actual action steps at the end of the episode. 

The other real downside for me on social media is that overstimulation is a big anxiety trigger for me. So when I'm feeling a little less regulated in my nervous system, I can tell, because I start scrolling faster, but not taking in any information. Sometimes I feel like, “I just can't look at this right now,” about things that I'm normally excited by, like people's posts who I normally love. Sometimes I get that feeling of I just can't take this in right now. That's a real sign for me that I need to put my phone away, stop scrolling for a little bit and probably do something that doesn't involve a screen. That too-much-information feeling can really, really overwhelm. 

The other side of this distraction is not just that you're spending time that you would be spending on something else, it's that you're spending energy. If you are consuming way more than you're creating, that intake of all this information might be crowding out, your ability to listen to your inner voice, and to hear your creative muse telling you what to work on next. We need that empty mental space in order to be able to hear that.

Also, the praise, and the likes, and that instant interaction can be really addictive, too. It's understandable that that might pull you to want to create things that get more likes, that get more praise, even if that's not really what your soul wants to be working on. It can cloud your judgment of what you feel called to create. 

Just because I'm mentioning this as a potential pitfall does not mean I'm lecturing you for consuming more than you're creating. Not every season is for intense creation, and in a creative “winter”, so to speak, you might be consuming more you might be taking in - things that will later germinate into something else. You don't know what seeds you might be planting yet, if you're in this kind of phase. I talk more about this in Episode 18 called Feeding Your Creativity During the Winter Season. I talk about how creativity goes in seasons, and you don't have to be producing all the time, just like nature doesn't produce all the time. So if you're interested in that idea, that's a great episode to check out. Even if you're not in the literal winter season, you might be in a metaphorical winter season.

As I was preparing this episode, I came across a great post and podcast episode by Tara McMullin of the What Works podcast. She's a great thinker and regularly produces ideas that are a really unique take on things that are getting talked about a lot - I really recommend her articles and her podcast. This post specifically was about emotional labor, and how most of the advice about showing up on Instagram and marketing is really about performing emotional labor in service of building an audience. She goes on to say, “Emotional labor isn't bad on its own. It's when we don't recognize that we're doing it, and so we don't take time to recover or ask for proper compensation that it becomes a problem. It's also an issue when expectations for emotional labor are systemic and unceasing.” 

There's so much to say in that, that I'm just going to point you to the article and/or podcast (she has it in both formats), but it really gave me a lot of food for thought around that energy exchange that I mentioned earlier, and whether it feels equal enough. 

Another of Tara McMullin's posts says, “How does thinking about the time you spend on public platforms as unpaid labor on behalf of social industry companies change the calculation for you?” That question stopped me in my tracks. So I don't have any real conclusions on that at this moment, but great food for thought, because it is true that if something is free, if a software is free, we're the product. Not saying that's a reason to jump ship at this moment, if you don't want to, but again, things to know, things to think about.

Another pitfall of social media potentially can be comparison, seeing other people's work, and using that as a way to criticize yourself. Again, that's just something to be aware of. If you see that happening, notice that you're being triggered by it, and maybe take a break at that moment, and/or tell yourself, “Oh, I'm feeling this sense of jealousy and comparison here, because this person's work represents something that I want, and I feel like I don't have that yet.” 

You can turn that into a positive way of thinking about it. Anytime we feel jealousy, it tells us a lot about what we want, and then we can use that to take our next steps. 

That segues perfectly into the next purpose that social media might serve for you, which is inspiration. This inspiration can be passive - you can just be appreciating things kind of passively as you're scrolling already - or you can be actively seeking out inspiration by looking up certain hashtags of a certain type of work, or a certain type of music, or medium, whatever it is that you are looking for. It can be so fun to just look around for fellow creators doing similar things, and find new ideas that way. 

Maybe you're looking for people who aren't doing similar things. I feel super inspired by visual artists a lot of the time and I do a little bit of drawing, but it's not something that I really spend a ton of time on. That visual stuff is so inspirational for me. A pro tip about this, your Explore page on Instagram can be curated. You can click the little dots on each thing, and you can say, “I don't want to see posts like this,” or whatever the text says. You can tell it specifically what kinds of stuff you want to see, and then you can kind of influence it by clicking more on the kinds of things that you do want to see. For me right now, my Explore page is probably 80% cats, and like 10% cookies, because that's something I clicked on lately, and 10% like a mix of tarot spreads, and just fun, colorful art. 

So when I look at my Explore page, I'm seeing all things that are pleasing to me and are serving the purpose of making me happy. So if your Explore page doesn't have what you want on it, you can change that around. I'm also a big fan of using bookmarks. I have a folder called Kitties, so anytime I just need to look at a cute cat or a cute animal, I've got one ready to go. I have one called Colors, because colorful art is very inspirational to me, as I said earlier. I have one for books, so anytime I see someone recommend a book, it's right there. I'm never at a shortage for books that I want to read, but it's always nice to keep collecting ideas, and they're right there.

Also, I collect things in a folder of marketing examples, like if I see someone write a post, and I think, “Oh, that's a really good idea, I want to do something either on that topic, or maybe that type of post,” it's nice to just have that there for when I need ideas. You can do this for collecting information on any type of interests that you have.

Then you're using Instagram - I'm talking a lot about Instagram, because that's my favorite spot - you're using the app for something that's more productive to what you want to be doing. 

Education is also a great reason to be on social media. Of course, you have to check your sources and make sure that what you're reading is actually true because, you know, something seems authoritative on a pretty graphic, but that doesn't mean that it's actually true. So, use your critical thinking hat here, but I've learned a ton from social media and it has brought me to research topics more deeply, especially political and social justice topics. But it can also lead me to, “Okay, I found this person's song. I'm going to go over to their YouTube and I'm going to learn about them, and then I'm going to learn about where that song came from.” It's this whole path of learning more and more. It's an amazing rabbit hole of education for me. 

I've also seen people use the close friends feature to provide some special content to people who want to opt in to that, and often that's educational, too. 

I'm saving the best for last: connection. Connection is the biggest reason why I am still on social media. I really value making in-person connections, but I don't think that means that making connections on the internet is any less valuable. I love that people are willing to show up and share from a place of empathy, and I strive to do that too. I love connecting with like minded people. I love connecting with people who think differently than me, so that I can learn from them. It's such a fun place to find people doing similar things to you. 

It can also be a place to seek feedback from people, like you post something and you say, “What do you think?” that can be a little bit vulnerable. But, you know, you can set boundaries around it like, “I'm only here for constructive feedback, please be kind.” That can be such a great way to connect with people who you never would have encountered in your day to day life. Especially in the last two years of being in a pandemic, for a while there, virtual interaction was the only kind that we had, and it was a lifeline for many of us. I know some of you are still in a place where you want to be isolated, because that's safer for you. And that's your form of human interaction right now, and that's awesome. 

I also think that living in in-person life and being too busy to check Instagram can feel good, but the connection there is undeniable, if you are going about it in a genuine way. I can actually think of some people who I did meet in person, maybe once, and we've had so many deep conversations via DMs on Instagram. That can be also such a saving grace for those of us who get overstimulated at having more conversations - we introverts who are also highly sensitive people have sort of a cap for how much speaking and person to person, you know, face to face interaction that we can handle in a day. So these text based interactions can be a way to still connect with people, to not have to be so overstimulated, and kind of do it more asynchronously, so that you can control when you have the capacity for it. 

So that's a lot to think about. I'm gonna wrap it up here. Like I said before, I'm not here to lecture you. I'm not here to vilify social media, even though it definitely is problematic in some ways, especially in how our data is used. That's beyond the scope of this show. But you know, it has its negatives, it has its positives. 

In the end, your social media usage is your choice, you get to decide what works for you, and how much works for you. And, as with anything, being intentional about it is the key. Maybe this week, you're on social media a ton, and it doesn't feel good to you. So, notice that and you can scale it back tomorrow, or today, depending on what time you're listening to this, if it's early in the day or late in the day. 

Treat it like an experiment, you get to change it anytime you want to. Maybe that's not going to go the way that you want it to every time, but that's okay. Keep testing and changing. If you're noticing that social media is taking your energy from your creative work, maybe you set a rule that you are not going to open that app until afternoon. This works really well for me because I am the clearest in the morning, so if I want to guard my time, specifically for music and composition, I usually do best scheduling that in the morning and not letting screens interfere with it. That's what works for me, it might not always work that way. Test and change. 

My invitation to you is: start small. Just ask yourself first, if your relationship with social media is what you want it to be right now. If not, how would you change it? What small change can you try today that will nudge you in the direction that you want to be going? 

That could have to do with the amount of time you spend on it or it could be a goal to connect more directly with more people on Instagram. Whatever it is, I'm rooting for you. I'd love to hear about what your relationship with social media is like, and if you do try a small change, let me know how it goes. 

Come find me on Instagram at @rebecca_hass or send me an email hello@rebeccahass.com I love hearing from you in whatever medium, at whatever time. So, as always, I'm wishing you well in your creativity, and your self compassion, and in all things. Have a great week, and I'll see you next time.