Most people that quit
@twitter leave at least three paragraphs STATING that they're quitting #twitter
before they quit #twitter. #SouthPark
It looks like I’m just in time to join the anti-bandwagon
bandwagon. Thank you Southpark, for
letting me laugh at myself. While I
don’t have Twitter, I was late to arrive on the Facebook scene. I think I made my first post sometime in
June, 2014. I’ve had the pleasure of
physically meeting many of my Facebook friends and actually becoming “real-life
friends” with a lot of them. I’ve been
inspired by fellow artists, entertained by many memes, and kept in the online
loop for a couple years now. I’m so
grateful that I’ve been able to share my art and experiences with an
audience. I’ve also had a lot of fun
being part of what will surely become known as the “Facebook Generation”. For those of you that have found me here via
social media, you’ve been great and I thank you.
However, I’m sorry to say, I’m no longer interested in
having a Facebook identity. For as much
as it has given me, Facebook and “Internet life” has simultaneously
watered-down what “real” is to me. While
I have used social media almost exclusively as a way of promoting myself as an
artist, I can’t help but occasionally cruise my news feed. All of my friends share a lot of great
stuff. Unfortunately, those great posts
are mingled in with a far greater amount of faux news, bad politics, Internet-generated
personality, and hate. As pretentious as
it may seem, or actually is, I can’t justify my self-promotion on a platform
that is filled with so many social media robots that probably have no interest
in what I’m doing, but hit the “like” button anyway. Facebook isn’t always “real-life” and I’m not
so sure that all of “real-life” is Facebook worthy. I’d hate to look back and discover that I
somehow made a decision based on how well it represents an internet identity,
forged by the many people that only know me as an online personality. Mind
you, I think I’ve Facebooking entirely wrong for the past couple years. While I’ve been using it as cold, free
advertising, I’m sure everyone else has been using it in a much more
lighthearted manner. I don’t mean for my
commentary to be accusatory, I just wanted to capture my reasons for leaving,
as egocentric as they may be, in Times New Roman. There are, evidently, over 1.7 billion
Facebook users out there. Our World’s
population is somewhere around 7.5 billion.
I can’t argue with the numbers…whatever that means.
I’m probably shooting myself in the foot, as Facebook has
been a great way of advertising exhibits, sharing my latest work, and
ultimately, selling paintings. But…I’m
tired of tooting my own horn and trying to be a social media marketer. At the end of day, posting pictures of my art
doesn’t change anything about what I do, so despite what this lengthy,
primadonna-label inducing explanation may imply, I don’t have any qualms about
leaving. I’ve tried hard to be my own
best spokesperson, but I’m just not very interested in putting myself out there
on a regular basis, especially for the sake of sharing my artwork, which is
becoming more and more of a personal thing for me. More often than not, when I log on to make a
post, I feel like some infomercial guy, trying to sell something nobody needs
on a television screen behind the Skee-Ball machines at Dave &
Busters.
In today’s wacky world, you can do a lot with the swipe of a
finger. It’s cool. But, as much as I like to Google factoids,
YouTube funny animal videos, and Amazon stuff I don’t need, I don’t like
feeling as if I wasted a single minute of my idle time scrolling through
everyone else’s business, regardless of how public they want it to be. I’ve always known social media can be a
slippery slope, so I think I’ll go ahead and stumble off halfway down rather
than crashing in a pile at the bottom.
It might just be word play, but I really believe regression and
progression are one of the same in this situation…for me, anyway. Ironically enough, I’m desperately trying to
make my life simpler. That is, I want to
do what I do, love what I love, and leave the rest for everyone else to worry
about. I’ve been very lucky, so I think
it’s a good idea to cash out of as many unnecessary obligations as possible to
make the most of what good fortune I’ve stirred up.
I’m hoping my “fans” and friends will continue to follow me
on my website and this blog, which I feel are much more appropriate venues for the
horn tooting I’ve done on Facebook. So
if you’re looking for my newest paintings, travels, exhibits, or thoughts, you’re
going to have to work for it a little harder for it. Visit my website: www.legrandartstudio.com...I'll try to keep it as up-to-date as possible, or possibly, out-of-date but always accessible.
And while you’re at it, go ahead and bookmark this page…you know, if
you’re into that sort of thing. I'll try to keep a good pace here on the blog, but as far as Facebook is concerned, consider
this the note on the nightstand.
