I must warn you in advance that this is going to be a very long post.
Snobbery. I’m not so sure that’s a real word but if not we’ll just add it to the book of words and phrases I call ‘Samantha-isms’ 🤣
What is snobbery? It’s the act of being a snob. So what, then, is a snob? Let’s look at Urban Dictionary (this is quickly becoming my favorite dictionary) which defines a snob as;
“A person who at the least, gives off the impression of having a superiority complex towards everyone outside his or her social circle with body language and words. Snobs come in many shapes and forms and in just about every style, e.g., Preppy snobs, Artistic snobs, Musical snobs, and even Redneck snobs. Whatever group of snobs someone belongs to, they act like they know everything in that area of knowledge and are less than friendly toward outsiders.”
Why am I discussing this? Good question. The reason is that about a month or two ago I came across the following in an Instagram story;
This screenshot is from a story by Katy Kehle of Hook, Line, and Inker, and you can find her on Instagram here and on YouTube here.(Screenshot and links shared, as always, with permission)
It made me think about something.
How many people do you follow on social media who don’t give you the time of day?
Now let me be fair. Nobody is obligated to like, comment, or follow anyone or anything. Ever.
I imagine, for the larger accounts, that it would become overwhelming trying to respond to each comment, each message, etc. For celebrity accounts I imagine it would certainly be a daunting and nearly impossible task to consider.
I feel that when people support you it’s important to acknowledge them. Perhaps you don’t have time to respond to every comment, maybe you don’t have the drive, the mental energy, or perhaps you just don’t want to. That’s fine.
However if I am consistently supporting you (commenting, liking sharing, etc) on social media and you don’t bother to even like my comments every now and then I’m not going to support you as often.
If I’m giving, giving, giving all of my positive energy to you and receive nothing in return then I’m going to take that energy and focus it elsewhere.
You get what you give.
I for one will always try my best to respond to every comment I receive. If people can take the time to write a comment then I’m going to take the time to reply.
That’s something that’s very important to me.
This is actually a difficult topic for me to sum up in one neat little post because, as with most things, I can see it from multiple angles and perspectives.
To help me out Katy has graciously agreed to an interview.
🎨
Katy, thank you so much. For sharing the image, agreeing to be interviewed, and for bringing up this topic. Our interview has also made me think about some other things that I’ll be discussing in future posts.
Things to remember:
- You are never obligated to like, comment, reply, message, etc.
- If you choose not to interact you do risk people not wanting to support you.
- Relationships require give and take. Not just take, take, take.
- Be true to yourself. There is only one you and you are pretty special.
- Your art is not better than that of any other artist and no other artist’s art is better than yours. You can not measure expressions of the human soul.
Until next time,
Be the kind of person that you wish there were more of,
Samantha
Driving the Crazy Train 
Thanks for posting this! It’s weird (in an awesome way, mind ya) to see what I believe in/agree 150% with/have experienced on IG, be written about! Snobbery is one of ugliest attitudes around & I cant handle that stuff…it’s one sure way to get on my sh*tlist.
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Thank you for taking the time to read my posts! This sort of thing is what inspired me to start this blog; the dark side of social media; IG in particular. I cannot stand the whole “I’m better than you” bs
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That’s so awesome! Keep up the great work you do, I look forward to more of your writing too…I like reading on the darker aspects of life, it’s interesting and there is always something to learn from it (whether it’s online or rl). It’s life and every day cant be sunshine and rainbows. Hope you have a great weekend! 🤙🏻😊
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“You can not measure expressions of the human soul.”… True that!!!! Like you, I see this from multiple angles and understand that not all comments can be replied to if there are hundreds or thousands. However, it can’t take that long to scan through the simple complements and find/answer questions or respond to the ones that are meaningful. We all dream of inspiring others with our art, or touching people’s emotions in some way. To not respond to those people is forgetting why you started sharing to begin with. Like Katy, I have a personality that doesn’t tolerate fakeness and I don’t subscribe to or watch release videos by bloggers who just want to link all those products for the affiliate $. And don’t get me started on the ridiculous number of product releases pushed on us by this industry. They try to namkrupt us on a monthly basis and there are too many similar products by different companies. Remember when there was basically one or two ink companies? Now everyone has their own line of ink…. and watercolors… and markers… and, and, and… Ugh. Thanks for doing this series… makes me realize I’m not the only one frustrated by these issues.
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Thank you so much for your responses. I really appreciate that you would take the time out of your day to read all my posts and comment on them. It means a lot.
I am not a big fan of affiliate marketing but when I do use affiliate links I make sure I am being crystal clear about it. I strongly dislike it when people don’t disclose that the link they’re sharing is an affiliate link. It’s shady.
The product releases are excessive. They are. We don’t need as much stuff as they would have us believe.
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I don’t have an issue with affiliate marketing, but I do have issues when a crafter who used to post projects only posts new releases for the *sake* of affiliate marketing. Bad enough bog crafters only work with new products, mostly to promote them.
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Yep yep yep. I completely agree. It’s sad to see and I’ve unfortunately seen it myself. ☹️
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This is all so true-there’s someone in particular that I found when I started making happy mail and embellishments and she had all sorts of tutorials and now it’s literally all DT hauls. It makes me sad, I mean a lot of us want to make some $ to support the habit but ugh.
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Yes, so true. I don’t ever want to lose that creative spark that lives inside of me. I don’t ever want creating to be a chore or something I do only for others. It’s my passion. I think it really comes down to a person’s why. Which I’ll be discussing in a future post. I hope that that person is happy with where they are now. That’s all you really can do; just hope for their happiness and contentment.
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Yes! I totally agree.
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This is so close to my heart!!! Thanks for the write up!!
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Thank you, Sandhya 💚 I was uncertain as to how this would be received and I’m grateful that it is turning out to be something that people are able to relate to.
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