DISCLAIMER: This is a personal opinion piece which might seem out of the blue, part
confession and part manifesto, which will be lengthy, and probably a bit of a ramble. Turn back now! Otherwise you may want to go pee
first and maybe pour yourself some coffee or iced tea and get comfy.
I want to offer some of my thoughts from the last
week or so… in case you haven’t noticed (no offense taken, haha), I’ve been a
bit quiet around here since after the craft show. I’m still sorting through
things, but this level of involvement is about what you can expect from me for
a while anyway. Let me elaborate.
I legitimately have a lot of stress in my life. A
big move (to a completely new city), a big relationship change (my husband will
be leaving in a week to be gone for a month and a half), and a big job change (which
I haven’t lined up yet at all) are three of the biggest stressors a person can
have in their life. But I feel like I can handle all of that. What I can’t deal
with anymore is the anxiety that I am falling further and further behind in
“Life.” I have lived most of my life feeling like my success and what I can
accomplish now isn’t good enough, like I’M not good enough… and I know that a major
contributor to this anxiety is the Internet.
I can’t actually blame the Internet itself for
this anxiety. After all, the Internet is an amazing invention and resource! We
have unlimited information and knowledge at each of our fingertips (for those
of us fortunate enough to live in a first world country anyway), and that is
amazing! I don’t even understand how it works... it might as well be magic.
But, this technology comes with a price. Numerous studies have been done about
the effects of today’s technology on my generation; how it re-forms the way we
process information, our thought patterns, our habits. It is SO integrated into
the way we live that it is radically reshaping our culture and how we relate to
each other and ourselves. The Internet just happens to also be very
accommodating to negative tendencies that we already struggle with as human
beings, and that fact cannot be taken lightly. We owe it to ourselves and to each
other to pay attention to what is happening around us.
Like I said, I can’t blame my anxieties on the Internet,
but I can’t deny that it has played an enormous role in my development as a
person. I grew up with it, after all. My natural inclination has always been
towards negative thinking and self-doubt ever since I was a child, which would
have been true with or without the Internet. However, since I started using the
Internet in my youth I have noticed a constant struggle with two major things
as a direct result of using it: discontent and perceived lack of time. Both issues
deal with a wonky perspective on reality and ultimately end in anxiety or worry.
I want to discuss both of these things and their effects on me as an artist and
as an individual, and a few of the conclusions I’ve come to regarding the reality
of the situation we are now in.
The Effects on Me as an Artist
As a ten-year-old kid and a fresh new DeviantART
user, I would spend hours browsing amazing art. A good thing in the long run,
because I can point to DeviantART and several artists I discovered through the
site (Tracy Butler in particular) as catalysts to my desire to take my art
seriously and improve, and for exposing me to a lot of really great art. It
played a huge role in developing my tastes at that age, for better or worse.
However, being me, I also spent a great deal of time depressed and unhappy
because I wasn’t as good as other artists my age (or artists twice my age!), or
didn’t produce as much work, or didn’t have a signature “style,” or didn’t have
as many followers, or whatever else I compared myself to.
Something that all creatives must keep in mind is
that the Internet heightens competition to a global scale. Gone are the days
when artists could strive to be “the best” in their own sphere, because now
that sphere has expanded to the entire world (yes, there has been a shift back
towards “local” art, but the use of the word “local” on the internet is really
just a marketing ploy because the selection for consumers still remains global).
As a child until now, I have had a difficult time dealing with the fact that
there would always be someone better than me. I was not content to be the best
artist in my class, or with making sales at art shows by age 14, or with winning
contests, etc. The praise of my friends and family and of strangers who
happened across my art was not good enough. I have always been a perfectionist,
the type to give up if I feel like I can’t be the best at something (and I’ve
never been a patient, hardworking person, so if greatness did not come easily I
usually threw in the towel rather than make the effort to improve). Thus, I
have spent years “binging” on various creative sites, where I try really hard
for a few months to achieve all the stats and popularity, only to be
discouraged (big surprise) and toss the whole thing.
Of course, the reality of the situation is that all
the time I spent going back and forth between furiously playing the popularity
game and throwing myself pity parties should have been spent just MAKING ART.
There are SO many quotes from successful artists giving that very simple advice
that I found so difficult to follow (Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan, and Ira Glass just
to name a few). The Internet made it easy for me to remain in a never-ending
cycle of idleness under the really very flimsy guise that I was gleaning inspiration
or “making connections.”
[A side note on networking… Hear me on this,
fellow artists: all of those favorites and followers you have mean NOTHING. The
actual investment that those “networking connections” have made was literally no
more than a passing fancy, a click of a button. Worse than window-shoppers,
they don’t even have to physically “show up” to consume your work… their “support”
is utterly meaningless. Unless someone put money in your account or even just
took the time to leave a thoughtful comment, the likely truth is that they
added your work to their favorites with as much thought as they did when they
hit “like” on the cat video their cousin posted on facebook (which they only
watched for about 20 seconds out of the minute and a half of the clip’s runtime).
You and I know this is true because we have done it before too. So, don’t let
your self-esteem or confidence in your work be ruled by stats, because in and
of themselves they are meaningless.]
Anyway, the point is I wasted a HUGE amount of
time on the Internet when I should have been doing stuff like making art. I
knew I wasn’t actually producing anything, but actually producing something is
hard work and takes a lot more effort than looking at other people’s work and
wishing. Eventually I would become a kind of ghost, living vicariously through
the artists on the Internet. I recognized how pathetic this was, so I would
often “quit” in a fit of frustration, only to return a few months later and do
the whole thing all over again.
The Effects
on Me as an Individual
This wasn’t just a trend with deviantArt (and Yerf
and Tomgeeks and all the other art communities I’ve been a part of at one time
or another). Other problem sites for me have been 43Things (a goal keeping site),
numerous hobby/lifestyle/productivity blogs, and, of course, the Infamous
Pinterest… Here is my professional opinion on THAT particular website:
Pinterest, I believe, is ultimately a curse. I do know some people who have had
good things come from it (diversified cooking, for example), but I think the
negatives outweigh the few success stories in this case. I myself have had a
love-hate relationship with Pinterest from the moment I “requested an invite”. I’m
honestly ashamed I kept it up as long as I did; it was a guilty pleasure in the
truest sense as I knew it was awful for me. It masquerades as a life-improving
way to curate beautiful things and good ideas, but it’s really nothing but a
factory for discontent and wasting time, or at least it is if you are anything
like me. ALL of its users acknowledge its fallacy openly. Each of us Pinterest
users have seen the numerous pins about the irony of how Pinterest is so full
of great ideas that it becomes more fun and more gratifying (and more time
consuming) to collect the ideas and pretty pictures than to actually implement
them.
My end result (after 3000+ pins) was not an
improved life with better time management, a better body, optimum health, more
beautiful things in my house, delicious home-cooked meals every night, and a
gorgeous wardrobe and hair… it was guilt, unhappiness, and anxiety. We all
openly scoff at check-out-line magazines and would feel ridiculous for spending
$5 on one (even though we do it anyway). We also know that magazines make us
feel inadequate, unhappy, and dissatisfied… all Pinterest did was eliminate the
outrageous price and give us access to every magazine topic ever conceived AND
make it cool to do all at the same time. How sinister can you get?! Also, I
would submit that Pinterest is 100% unnecessary for all of the things it claims
to help you achieve. Want to cook better? Use those dusty yet tried and true cookbooks,
or take a class... Want a cleaner home? Try turning off the computer for half
an hour... Want to have beautiful things in your home? Just go shopping for
Pete’s sake, or even better: realize that you don’t actually need “things” to
make a home. In my experience, Pinterest is primarily used as a “just in case”
bin… the neat ideas we find are rarely pertinent to our actual needs and so
merely put the idea in our heads that we have needs to fill that in reality
don’t actually exist. Sound familiar? It’s a tried and true advertising tactic.
This is one instance where the adage “ignorance is
bliss” is beneficial, and far from the original idea about sticking your head
in the sand regarding things that actually matter. It astounds me that I’ve
made such big, sweeping statements against commercials and advertising in the
past while at the exact same time I was embracing the very thing I claimed to
despise. I don’t usually going around telling people what they should do with
their lives, but this I will say: If you have a Pinterest account, go delete
the damn thing and be rid of it. Or, if you aren’t convinced yet that you are
doing more than wasting your time, pay close attention to how you feel about
your life and your self after you’ve spent more than an hour pinning away. If
you are one of the few who has the power to reap the practical benefits of
Pinterest without letting it drag you down, more power to you. If not, please
think twice about what you are doing to yourself.
Anyway! Pinterest wasn’t my only problem (it’s
just the only one I can actually blame for being evil, haha). Every
productivity site I came across and joined ended up sucking away my time and
energy, and I would inevitably saddle myself with guilt and self-imposed
deadlines and expectations. I overwhelmed myself to the point where I would
become paralyzed and spend very little time actually achieving said goals,
quite similar to my experience with art sites. I let myself be tricked into
thinking all of these self/life-improvement ideas and goals were achievable,
and in a very short amount of time, let alone that all of these things were absolutely
worth spending time and energy achieving. I felt inadequate as a human being
because I wasn’t a super-hot homemaker who lived off the grid and made
everything by hand and grew her own vegetables and had a craftsman house on a
lake by the coast in the woods that was both tiny and large and full of awesome
things who wore awesome clothes and had a farm and a perfect family and a full-time,
super-fulfilling and enjoyable career. It sounds ridiculous when it’s all
written out like that, but for some reason I spent a lot of time actually believing
I could have all of those things at once. No wonder my blessed life seemed dull
in comparison!
I have wasted a LOT of time over the years on the
internet, and I multiplied my anxiety that I didn’t have enough time in the day
by not only using the time I actually had to do nothing, the nothing I was
doing made me feel like I needed to do more and be more. This vicious cycle left
me feeling drained and like I always had a huge pile of things to do, when in
reality all the pressure I was feeling was self-imposed. I was harried and
easily depressed. I felt guilty if I wasn’t working hard to cross things off of
my to-do list. And when I was tired and couldn’t work anymore, I went back to
the Internet because it made me feel like I was doing something (self-improvement
by osmosis? I have no idea… the way I can rationalize stupid things scares me).
This cycle was a familiar path for me. I’ve tried to quit so many times, and “just
be more disciplined,” but I would ALWAYS go back to the same sites and try again,
thinking somehow I could keep it under control, while the same thing happened
over and over and over again, in the pattern of any run-of-the-mill addict.
My Own
Solution
The (super obvious) revelation I’ve had about
myself recently is that I simply don’t have the strength of character to
discern between what is just a good idea versus something that I must do, or
the self-discipline to know where and when to stop. I am too easily persuaded
that I can do more and should be more than I am, instead of being ok with the
progress that I am making on a daily basis. I have realized that how I use the
Internet is detrimental to my growth as a human being and as an artist. My
natural tendency to depression and anxiety is exacerbated by my inability to
discern and control the things I consume online. I can’t handle having the
entire world at my fingertips. I’m not strong enough to wield that power, and I
never will be if I don’t change something drastically.
Thus, I have decided to “quit” the Internet. Most
addicts have very little success trying to wean themselves off of whatever
they’re addicted to, and it’s more my style to quit cold turkey (as evidenced
by the many many times I’ve “quit” certain websites… I can’t tell you how many
times I’ve deleted my Myspace and Facebook accounts). And I’ve done Internet
fasts in the past, for a few days or a week or even the entire season of Lent that
one year. But this time I intend for this to be permanent. Recovering addicts
are recovering addicts for the rest of their lives, right? From this day
forward I swear off all browsing and all past problem sites (and all future
ones… no more getting involved in the latest thing, or anything for that matter.
I simply must say an absolute No to those things or run the risk of undoing
everything in a matter of minutes).
Unfortunately, the Internet is kind of a
requirement for modern life… Besides, it’s undeniably a wonderful, useful
invention! Used properly, it allows for all kinds of creative movement and even
a form of community. Anybody can share their work, get help, and learn, and
it’s been the vehicle for some incredible creative projects that I’m proud to
have been involved in. Skype kept me sane when I was halfway across the world,
sick and dehydrated in an Indian hospital room. Swap-bot introduced me to an
incredible creative community of penpallers. Etsy has given me the opportunity
to start my own business and put my work out there with no risk and very little
cost. Facebook allows easy contact with friends and family and an excellent
platform for party planning. And e-mail has made communication ridiculously simple
and easy. My aunt even fixed her oven all by herself because of the Internet! I
am not a Luddite by any standard (though I like to pretend). But I have proven
that I am incapable of using the Internet properly when left to my own devices.
What does this look like practically? I’ve
acknowledged that I can’t very well go “off the grid” without making things
unreasonably difficult for myself. I’m not about to throw out the baby with the
bathwater. I will, however, be limiting myself to 15 minutes of access twice a
day, and limiting my regular “check in” sites to gmail, facebook, twitter,
etsy, outright, mint, and blogger, with occasional posts to Instagram. I will
allow myself to look things up during that time (directions to places, recipes,
references, specific artists or projects, etc), but I will not let myself
“browse” (including on Etsy!) and I can no longer follow blogs except for ones by
people I know personally. I will have to use the Internet for work; when I’m
working I won’t set a limit except to only be on work-related sites (none of
these multiple tab dealios, which is difficult for me because I tend to flip
back and forth between random stuff and work while I wait for things to load,
etc). Again, I intend this change to be permanent at this point, for a good
long while at least.
What is Ahead
This is still a very young endeavor… I’m only a
few days in after all. I’m finding it’s more habitual than I thought; anytime
there’s a lull at work I automatically go to open Chrome… it got to the point
where I finally just removed it from my toolbar. But already I feel an immense
weight lifted. I don’t feel like I have to keep up with anyone or that I’m
somehow falling behind. I feel free to do whatever I choose when work is done
for the day, and I have better boundaries regarding that work. I am more
willing to let things go at their own pace. To be clear, if I hadn’t identified
the underlying problem with me, I wouldn’t be enjoying this new freedom because
I would likely have replaced the Internet with some other distraction or thing
to consume and gone on being frustrated and discontent. Now that I have some
space for thought I am forced to be more reflective, which is kind of
uncomfortable because I’m realizing that I have had no direction in my life for
the last few years. When all the trappings I thought I needed and wanted and
all the goals I thought were worthwhile pursuits have been taken away, what am
I left with? I’m 22 years old. Shouldn’t I know what I want by now?
I know that a lot of people my age are like me… no
sense of direction, no clear goal for their lives. But I don’t think that
should be the new normal. And I wonder if part of the problem is that we have
too many options, too many good ideas and opportunities, and it is
overwhelming. We are crippling ourselves. How can we sort through the entire
world at our fingertips, bombarded constantly with endless possibilities, and
know what to choose, let alone discover what we were made for? We give
ourselves very little time to get to know who we are, choosing instead to try
to build an image of ourselves based on the things we “like,” what we consume.
We try to be everything and end up with nothing. Who are we? Certainly not the
summation of our Pinterest boards or Facebook profiles. What we want to be is
not who we are. Until we come to terms with who we are in reality we won’t be
able to move forward with any kind of clarity.
So, I don’t know what this means for Scoutaroo,
which is a small part now in the course of a lifetime. It could be more, it
could be nothing… at this point I feel like I need to put a lot of things on
hold until the chips fall in Santa Cruz. A lot depends on where we end up. And I
don’t know what this means for you, or how you will choose to use the World
Wide Web from this point forward. The Internet has a place; I suggest we keep
it there. If you’d like to do something similar to what I’m doing, I would love
to join forces with you via e-mail or snail mail! Whatever you decide, I hope
you take seriously the effect that our rapidly changing world has on how you
relate to yourself and others. We can’t afford to “go with the flow” or our
lives will succumb to entropy every time if we are not deliberate.
I will hopefully be checking in from time to time
via twitter and here, but as I said, you can expect some quiet around here for
some time. The shop remains open! Buy the rest of my stock! ;) But for now I
need a bit of silence, some true stillness instead of sitting in one place
idling, fooling myself into thinking I’m going somewhere just because the
engine is running.
