Content brings contentment but…

…does it really speak to the artist fighting to tell their story within?

Jun 12, 2024

People are questioning the validity of keeping Meta products in their lives and businesses after learning that they will use posts, content, and comments to teach their AI products. Europe is using the GDPR to help cushion the blow. USA users are leaving the platforms. Australians? Well, we’re still trying to digest the news, really.

Meanwhile, the pace at which we’re all expected to talk about our fabulousness and have a presence is colliding with reduced reach and an increasingly pay-to-play internet.

It's easy to feel as though we’re stuck in some business shaped trash compactor being simultaneously juiced and squeezed out from all sides.

Slowly, the thrumming drum of originality is being hit. From Neil Gaiman on down, we’re being reminded that the best defence against plastification, homegenisation and enshittification is to be as original as possible. To cut a jib that no one else can follow.

And they are right. But like most good advice, this is only the tip of the iceberg of what’s needed in the content recipe.

Image: pens and paint pens, inks and more in old candle jars.

The internet is dead. It’s wrapped in plastic

At the risk of sounding like the tired GenXer in the throes of mid-life crisis that I truly am, I remember the good old days of the 90s internet as a time of free expression. Where the socially inept finally sounded cool. And people who had wondered if they could ever find a way to be bigger, braver and badder than they may have been had handles and lounges to go to.

A Goth with a taste for BBS life, I remember how fresh and witty we all were online. And how we gathered in a house that barely stood in Granville to hang out with the Sysop and be awkward over cans of VB and Canadian Club. And how we clustered around the monitor cracking jokes by the end, somewhat unable to reconcile IRL with IRC and back again.

People talk of the enshittification of the internet as though we have suddenly arrived at this place unwittingly, unknowingly.

But it began with Facebook taking these pockets of people, these outliers and roamers of a different world, and plonking them elbow to elbow with the mainstream.

Never forget - Facebook has always been the mall. You might have found the occasional oasis, but it was never designed with your creativity in mind.

It has always been the place that’s designed to confuse and trap you in it. It wants you to stay longer to increase the chance of walking past something that makes you spend money. Or to pay loads of money for people to see you as they wade through their own confusion. It’s always been a blaring hellscape of marketing and scarily bright lights blaring on the consumerism.

Facebook may have given me the biggest footprint via the Freelance Jungle group, but I knew it was always going to end up this way.

But as we approach (what looks like) the death of social media, there is also something else here in this digital wasteland where everyone is producing their content and wondering why the algorithm won’t play ball.

And that is freedom.

If the tools are past their expiry date, if our patience with getting sold on the internet is reduced to clear, if we truly are about to unhook from the digital teat and sit again with our creations, I say embrace it.

Forget about the “be like me” reality TV wannabes who made content creation a statement of various pink hues, sassy CTAs, slightly banal hot takes, and allegedly unpopular opinions that turn out to be the beige of human opinion poorly bedazzled to sparkle on an algorithm next to oddly pointing fingers.

Just rip off the plastic and breathe.

I want to sit with you and hear about your art. Why you thought you were doing something to change the world. The tender heart that makes you optimistic things can change. The determination that inspires you to work harder than most. The taste you have for a well thought out risk. The things social media isn’t that interested in.

It matters why you give a crap about helping clients or pushing creative limits. You don’t have to be some pastel oracle with arms crossed with the assuredness only a good little capitalist can bring.

Forget for a moment about what the audience is expecting. Or the polished statements someone else says you have to say. Stop marketing your industry or the idea of what you do. Forget about telling us it’s been a while since you introduced yourself. Let your art speak for itself.

Just have a bloody conversation.

Tell us why you care.

Ask yourself:

· Am I creating blogs, social media, and marketing materials because I like what I am creating or because it’s expected that I make them?

· Is what I produce memorable?

· Am I helping my clients? Am I prompting them to delve deeper into the situation?

· When I market my work, am I marketing myself or the industry I belong to?

· Am I creating this way because I am too afraid to be vulnerable?

· Are my clients even listening to me here?

Catch up with what other freelancers are creating

Explore the Shoalhaven brewery scene with Benny. Learn what to trust with LLM and AI with Fiona. Celebrate Cassy’s new book. Explore Tim’s live lounge room sessions of musician Georgia Rodgers. Check out Emma’s podcast Wildfemmes with Deborah Hutton. Reread books with Jess on this podcast. Adrian sings about the trauma of losing a childhood home. Join Tim to become an inbox artist. Read Kath’s environmental feature on the Monthly. Anna takes you deep in the podcast with David Fernadez. Sally and Monica share this documentary on Indigenous protected areas. Explore Amy’s illustrated placemat for ESL child food education. Grab a copy of Katie’s prayer journal. Join Sally for an urban nature adventure.

Catch up with me and let’s create together

Join the Patreon as a FREE or PAID member.

Hire me for coaching for your freelance business, creativity, client woes and more.

You can join me for an hour of virtual creative coworking June 17th.

There’s also a double hitter of business coworking from 12:30pm to 2:30pm AEST June 21st.

RESCHEDULED: Forget digital programs that turn into projects of their own – go lo-fi with a productivity journal crafternoon at 10am AEST on June 28^th.