grass roots noun ‘ɡræsˈruːts’

1: The very foundation or source

So, I’ve decided to stop using social media. I have a few reasons for doing so, other than the whole “mental health” aspect, which is part of it too, but more on that later. I’ve decided to use my website and email list as the primary hub of all things “me”. My art, my life in pictures, stories, all of it hosted here for anyone who cares to venture off the beaten path and take a look. And it’s all owned and curated by me. No algorithm. No shareholders. No angel investors. Just me…old school…grass roots.

Why I’m done being social.

The bottom line is that I have 3 young beautiful kids. They are growing up so quick and every second I waste on Instagram is a second I could be playing with them, drawing with them, listening to them, teaching them, having fun with them, before they are inevitably embarrassed by me (and then eventually come around to realize how cool I am). But there are other reasons too.

I only ever used 3 platforms: Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Twitter I was never good at. I didn’t spend much time there and only ever posted via other social platforms. And then, when Elon took over and turned it into a colossal dumpster fire, I decided it was time to delete my account completely. I got onto Facebook around 2012, I think. It was a fun way to stay in contact with friends and the most egregious thing about it was all the ads for those stupid games like Farmville. Overtime, however, it has turned into a cesspool of misinformation, hate, and bad actors. I rarely spend time on there anymore anyway and I haven’t posted anything in I can’t tell you how long. I’m not deleting my account, but I have archived all my posts and am redirecting what little traffic I have left to my website. Finally, the big one for me…

Instagram

I was late to the game on Instagram, but, as an artist, I was hooked right away. I had the typical wide-eyed fantasies of posting my drawings, being seen by the right people and garnering tons of likes and followers and maybe getting an agent or a job. Likes and followers were slow to come, and I tried all the tricks. Hashtags, schedules, whatever I heard might get more people to see my stuff. I wasted countless hours pursuing validation that trickled in just enough to keep me hooked. Then, one day I was listening to a podcast where a particular illustrator I like (who has a big following on social media) said that he had started reposting his older posts because the algorithm only shows your post to about 10% of your followers. He did this to get new eyeballs on his art. I thought this was insane! I was genuinely pissed off. I finally realized that the algorithm, the developers, the investors, were in control, not me…not even one iota. Even though Instagram had become a Snapchat/TikTok wannabe, I stuck with it for a little while longer, mainly because I was addicted, but at that point I was only occasionally posting family pictures and doom scrolling. However, after watching The Social Dilemma and reading the book The Chaos Machine, by Max Fisher, I new it was time to pull the plug for good and focus on what I can control…my own website. Like Facebook, I am keeping my account but redirecting newcomers to adamahl.com.

In a future post, I’ll talk about what I plan to do now that I don’t have social media to “share my art” or “get in front of the right people”. But for now, thank you for reading and welcome to my little corner of the internet.

 Adam