Sometimes I feel like being an artist on social media is a lot like being in highschool. After talking about it with a fellow crafter I’ve decided to share my thoughts.
There’s all the usual drama; all the backstabbing, trash talking, competition, and probably the most reminiscent of highschool out of all the cliches; the cliques.
I was a complete loner by the time I got to highschool. I remained on the outskirts, just watching it all unfold.
It’s much the same on social media as it was back in the highschool lunchroom.
In the center of the room you have the popular kids. At the tables surrounding them, you have the fringe popular kids. You know the ones; they really want a seat at that popular kids’ table but they can’t quite make it. It seems like the harder they try the further away they drift.
Then, surrounding the fringe kids, you’ve got all the different cliques; the athletes, the smart kids, the drama kids, the band and orchestra members, the stoners, the goths, the skaters, etc. Finally, here and there peppered in amongst them, you’ve got the kids who don’t fit in with any of them. Not really. (Super overgeneralization here, I get it.)
If you look closely enough you’ll see it being played out on social media. In just about every niche, not just those within the creative communities.
I don’t really have a point to all this or even things to remember today. I just wanted to share something I’ve noticed because it’s getting on my nerves and I’m really just sick and tired of it.
Where do you fit in? Or not fit in? I see myself as a person who wants nothing to do with the popular kids or the various cliques. I see myself as someone who prefers the company of the ones who don’t fit in and as someone who likes to go and make friends with them.
I gotta tell ya. They’re a heck of a lot more fun 😉
Oh, do me a favor. The next time you’re on social media, go outside of your group of friends and say hello to someone new. Shake it up a little!
Have a great day.
Sunscreen, barbecue sauce, mosquitos,
Samantha
(Ha ha ha. You thought I was going to rhyme, didn’t you? 😉)
Driving the Crazy Train 
I was an outsider then, and an outsider now. I never seem to have more than 5 close friends at any time in my life, and that number is usually closer to 2. My 1 and only child just graduated high school and I feel like I’m losing all the acquaintances I made through his activities, so I’m clinging to 3 friends now like a needy toddler. While I despise the “popularity” in the crafting world, I’m a little jealous of it too. You see all the camaraderie at CHA and I know I’ll never be in that group. Not that I really want to, but I would like a little gang of guerrilla crafters fighting the trend of almost identical card making with the same products from the latest release :-)
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As long as I’m here you’ve got a crafty friend in me, a comrade in the bucking of the trends, a guerrilla crafter 💚
The camaraderie does look nice.
I just don’t like that it comes at the cost of others being made to feel like they don’t belong.
You’ll always fit in with me. At my table in the cafeteria there is room for everyone and anyone. Especially the trend buckers and the people who go against the grain 😉
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I’m happy to share the table with you :-) We’re not just crafty friends, we’re like a really small *gang* ;-)
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😂 now that is one gang I would not mind being a part of! 😂
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