Publicado
Thu, Jun 15, 2023, 14:00
- King Britt, Halogenix, Suzi Analogue and others discuss maintaining a healthy relationship with the apps.
For many artists, social media is an essential work tool. But what happens when it gets too much?
According to a study published by Pirate Studios on May 1st, 54 percent of the 1,000 artists surveyed said they use social media as their primary way of self-promoting. 51 percent said they've taken breaks from the apps at some point in their careers.
Last year in the US, 73 million people across a three-month period used social media video apps like TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts to consume music, MusicWatch reports. The average time spent on these platforms was nearly eight hours per week.
This level of engagement can cause artists to think twice about taking breaks from social media. Will their following or engagement go down? Could a break stunt future promotional rollouts? (Experts recommend posting one to three times a day to maximise engagement.)
Speaking to Resident Advisor, UK artist Higgo said he was worried about how a break might negatively impact his career. At the time of the interview, he was trying to stay away from Instagram. "I did end up posting something this afternoon, a quick reel, and it's gotten no engagement at all," he added. "It kind of makes me even more afraid to properly get back into promoting."
Higgo dislikes that Instagram feels like "constant social comparison," but he also notes that "if you're putting stuff out there constantly and it's getting really good engagement, then that does feel good. It's nice to have that validation."
Studies have shown that successful social-media interactions release the same feel-good chemical—dopamine—as food and sex. Its deliberately addictive nature is linked to harmful effects on mental health, sometimes resulting in depression and anxiety. In September 2021, the University of Maine claimed that roughly 60 percent of the global population uses social media, which suggests that most people are susceptible to mental-health issues. This resonates with dubstep DJ and producer J. Sparrow.
"So much music and performance content is posted online these days by peers," he told RA. "It's super easy to feel inadequate and feel like you should be working harder or trying to alter your image to fit in with the latest algorithm-breaking content style for likes." For a self-described "laid-back introvert," the pressure of publicly proving his accomplishments is "anxiety-inducing."
As a result, J. Sparrow has taken many hiatuses from social media. He initially feared being forgotten, but "the total opposite has happened," he said. "I sold more music and had more streams than ever before because I was creating higher-quality original music and going against the grain. I would pop up after a few months and do an Instagram Live video and invite followers to listen through my latest creations and have a chat for an hour or two, then I would disappear again." He felt that the more intentional and intimate showcases made people focus on the music, not on him.
On June 2nd, UK drum & bass artist Halogenix posted his concerns about the social-media landscape. "I refuse to participate in this relentless game of social-media-driven visibility," he wrote on Instagram. "The insatiable appetite it creates to be constantly seen is destroying not only my mental health, but the core values and qualities of the [music] culture that I fell in love with."
He also spoke with RA, saying that social media "sucks me into a pattern of feeling like I have to be visible in order to maintain my standing as an artist rather than creating more art. It's self-defeating." For him, the only way to solve the problem is by "rebalancing priorities" and being present, whether with his loved ones or in the studio.
Other artists have made a habit of taking regular breaks. US veteran King Britt will warn his followers that he's "closed for spiritual maintenance" before logging off. "My following knows I'm working on magic especially when I take breaks," he explained. "It's healthy. The corporations and platforms make you think you have to be on all the time, but I feel anonymity is a lost art. The mystery is something we artists need more of."
Jack Denney, of the Minnesota-based trio Ternion Sound, agreed. "Organic interest is still king," he said. "Word of mouth and people genuinely being interested in you and sharing your content with your friends is still the most important. So I think if I take a break, people are still gonna be there."
At the time of speaking, Denney was planning a full social-media detox after recently deactivating his Twitter account. The outspoken artist was overwhelmed with being constantly tagged by people requesting his opinions on politics and music industry hot topics. While he believes everyone deserves a response, he also decided to disengage because "people feel a little bit [too] entitled, access-wise, to public figures."
Political debate can add another layer of stress, particularly for Black artists. For Sinistarr, the murder of George Floyd in 2020 led to him leaving Twitter. "[There was] misinformation floating around everywhere," he said. "Between that, the election and the music scene being performative, it got to a point where I was like, 'I don't want to teach anyone anything.'"
In May 2020, the US experienced one of the most prominent civil rights movements in decades, sparking protests and uproar across the world. For Black public figures, this came with the added weight of having to educate people and speak up about current events, while also being bombarded with graphic imagery of Black tragedy.
"The constant trauma posts truly can work on your spirit," King Britt acknowledged. "That's definitely when I started to take spiritual breaks from socials. I even posted to take care of [the] spirit by taking digital detoxes."
But not every artist has a love-hate relationship with social media. Speaking openly on public platforms comes naturally to New York's Suzi Analogue, who said she's able to use the apps in a positive way.
"I use it to inform and update [myself]," she told RA. "I don't watch the news. I use social media as the news because it's faster and more granular." But, she conceded, "I struggle to make 'content.' It feels forced and sometimes I have to mute people to preserve my healthy relationship with socials."
For others, fostering a mutually beneficial connection with social media can be daunting. According to a 2023 report by Forbes, 39 percent of people said they feel its addictive pull, while 9 percent admit they're fully addicted.
"I have seen people solely focus on social media to blow up their career and get to the top only to realise they skipped a few steps and couldn't deliver when the time was right," J. Sparrow said. "Creativity is, at heart, a form of therapy and self-satisfaction. If you seek validation... self-validate."
He added: "While social media is a great tool to deliver your art, it shouldn't be used [as] a replacement for perfecting your craft. We shouldn't be cutting corners and skipping important milestones on personal self-exploratory journeys within creativity."
Photo: Dominik Lehmann