Social Media is Depriving Artists

The forgotten art of honing a craft.

Lately I’ve been very focused on self-promotion via social media, mostly driven by the fear of my career as a comedian not getting to where I want it to be. This has caused me to spend less time tweaking jokes, listening back to recordings of my sets, and writing new material, which are three vital steps for growth as a comedian. Whenever I do do them, I remember not just how important they are, but how much I enjoy them. I think to myself “how have I been depriving myself of this?” In recent times, my focus has shifted away from the actual work and towards promotion of the work. I even feel pressure to post sexy photos of myself on Instagram in order to get more eyes on my page. Sometimes I even do it (and then usually delete the post minutes later after I remember I have parents).

This shift in focus is not unique to me. Comics (and other artists) can get obsessed with the social media grind because it can in fact launch very successful careers. A comic’s high follower count makes ticket sales more likely and therefore provides incentive for clubs to book that comic. Simply put, the more a comic posts content that results in gaining followers, the more they get to work.

As a comedian, I’m grateful to have these modern day tools at my disposal to take some control over my career and keep building regardless of what “the industry” thinks of me. But because it now feels like the ball of success is completely in my court, the pressure to constantly put out content has become overwhelming, to the point where it’s the majority of what I think about with regards to my career. Every day instead of writing, I sit and think: I should post a clip of stand-up. What clip should I post? What clip will get mean reactions that spark fights in the comments and therefore feeds the algorithm and gets me more views? Should I go into my folder of bikini photos and post one with the caption “lol hi”?

I started doing open mics regularly in 2015 when social media was certainly seen as important but before it had become such a necessary element in finding success. I’d go to open mic after open mic, record my sets, listen back, change one word of one joke, and go to another open mic and try again until my jokes started getting consistent laughs. My peers mostly talked about jokes and what open mics didn’t make you buy a drink in order to perform (also which open mics weren’t run by sex offenders). All I cared about was getting better at stand-up and I didn’t feel pressure to be a nationally touring headliner. I had a “day job” and I knew making a living from comedy was many years away. I accepted this knowledge with pleasure and excitement as I honed my craft.

But in just a few years, with the rise of the short video format — TikTok first, then Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts soon after (which allowed performers to share short clips of their work that could then go viral due to this new video format being favored by the algorithm — why is it favored? Beats me! We just accept it!) the landscape changed (from landscape to vertical — lol).

I don’t think this altered landscape is all bad — well actually, I do think it’s all very bad and smart phones shouldn’t exist and our brains are being profoundly altered by technology and we’re losing everything that makes being alive worth it at rapid speed — but that’s for another piece another time. I’m writing this piece with a general acceptance of the modern world in which we live, where it’s wonderful to be able to share your work broadly before the industry has decided you’re ready and able to make them money.

But now the artist must decide for themselves when they’re ready, and that pressure can sometimes be too much to bear.

There seems to be a new urgency in the air. Maybe it’s a lingering symptom of the pandemic — all of us having felt existential dread more acutely. Maybe it feels like there’s no time to waste and definitely no time to hone a craft. Just go out and throw shit at the wall and hope something sticks!

Maybe it’s the symptom of technology developing at an exponential rate causing us to feel we need to create and grow our careers at that same speed.

I’d like to say I’m going to focus more on the activities that directly impact the quality of my work, rather than the activities that impact the opportunities I get to share my work. I’d also like to say that these are the same activities, because good quality work should lead to more opportunities. A part of me still believes this is true and that taking the time to make good work will pay off more in the end. After all, word of mouth is still incredibly powerful, and if something moves and amazes enough people, the news gets around.

But another part of me worries that we’re moving more and more towards a world where we’re not even looking to be moved or amazed anymore. We’re just looking to be distracted. If distraction is the goal, the loudest and most persistent “artist” will win, and many may forget why they entered a creative field in the first place.

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Thanks for reading!

In the coming months I’ll be performing in Corvallis OR, Dayton KY, Stanford CA, Sonoma CA, Washing DC, Royal Oak MI, and Gettysburg PA. More cities TBA! All tickets here!

Also, if you’re looking for a weird gift for someone this holiday season, maybe this.