How to deal with social media and the anxiety burn-out issue?
How to deal with social media and the anxiety burn-out issue?
A reader’s question…
Social media provides a huge opportunity for creatives, especially illustrators to reach their an audience, but there is a dark side to it. Stress, Anxiety and Burnout.
A reader asks; How to deal with social media and the anxiety burn-out issue?
Dear Reader,
Thanks for the question. Here’s my answer;
Recognise it as an opportunity you can choose to pursue or not. (Many people live healthy happy successful lives without any social media)
Don’t think of social media as a project, rather as part of YOUR project. (What is your project?)
Ignore default metrics for the most part. (Measure project outcomes)
Measure effort. (What successes are you emulating, are you also emulating the effort?)
Consider the long cycles. (Maybe you won’t see results for a couple of years are you okay with that? Do you have patience?)
Start a blog or a newsletter instead, it’s less stressful. (And more valuable)
Also, use a scheduler and write your posts out ahead of time. That way you can just swoop in, post and get out of there before the emotional fatigue sets in.
I agree 100% with your answer. Some illustrators around me find social media really difficult. Their main issue is that they questioned how people can post new artwork as often (when do they find the time) and they were struggling with the time consuming. I realize recently they find it difficult because they were there "because they had too". They were seing social media almost only as a way to get new gigs rather than a way to connect. They were just thinking about posting daily rather than what to post and what to offer. When I first began using social media, I was obsessing about posting regularly and get seen. Recently, I stopped worrying about this and began to have fun connecting with fellow illustrators.