Abandoned America1/ Today it occurred to me that I am very grateful that the internet has been wonderful for "getting my work out there" but 25 years ago I could have produced 1/10 the work I have now and had a tenured position for it and rested on my laurels. But because content is constant and disposable now the need to create it never stops. And you never "get there", you just keep treading water until you sink beneath it.
2/ It's not that I'm ungrateful for the people who appreciate my work or the fact that I get to share it with them. I am, so much. But we replaced stability and security with internet attention and that doesn't pay bills. It doesn't get you health care. And it doesn't give you any sort of longevity with your work. When you stop posting the already shallow well dries up and you're forgotten. That's what being an Internet Presence is. It's pouring your work and life in a bottomless hole.
3/ Most people are supportive of people posting their merch or Patreon links but at the end of the day that absolutely unreliable income has replaced any semblance of safety for those of us in the arts. And some people hate us for the fact that we have to dance for our dollar while still wanting us to produce for their enjoyment. It's just messed up to think it never ends. You never "get there". You just live to hustle another day until you don't.
4/ There are so many creators struggling and people think if you have a solid follower count that automatically means you have security. It doesn't. If you're out there struggling to get by, whether you have 10 followers or 1,000,000, I see you and feel it too. This isn't the way it should be, and isn't how it always was. There are a lot of great things about the internet but constantly having to put things out there or starve is not one of them. Your work has value beyond that.
5/ The industry of "content creation" doesn't care about you. It doesn't care if you have a safe home or heat or electricity or access to a doctor. It's all about posting things that are interesting for the moment they exist on the cusp of a trend so they can make ad $$ or whatever and then vanish. It's a sick, garbage cycle. Don't confuse the things you need to get by for internet fame, which is nothing. Idk what the alternative is. I haven't found it either.
6/ F*** me, I should've just swallowed my bile and got into NFTs* from the start, regardless of whether they were a scam or not 😔
* Look, I hate NFTs. That's not serious. Except I would be a lot better off if I didn't have a conscience then. You don't have to tell me NFTs are bad. If I had no morals I would have stayed on Twitter.
Roadskater, Ph.D.@AbandonedAmerica I never could figure out crypto, and NFTs, wait, seriously, what? Sorry, no, I'll just gamble my ability to retire on the stock market.
@roadskater I mean, same thing I guess. Just gonna take your money one way or another 😄
@AbandonedAmerica I'm just glad I bought a bunch of a certain tech stock when it hit a low in April 2003 and have held on ever since. So I have some FY money if I decide to punch out early (and I am 59 already).
@roadskater I should be so lucky. My relationship with money is that it all seems to be FM money
@AbandonedAmerica I hear that from friends with kids, esp. the friends with kids in college. One of my best friends is 62 and says he cannot afford to retire.
@roadskater retirement? Lol I'll be working til I'm in the ground and still owe after that. That's the new norm unfortunately
@AbandonedAmerica Post retirement, I may continue to "work" by finding some Github repos and obsessively post pull requests. Because, WTH else would I do with half of my day?
Joseph Zitt@AbandonedAmerica @roadskater I'll be able to retire in a few years, but only because I moved out of the US a few years ago and started living and working in a country with actual health care, pensions, etc.
@jzitt @roadskater See, I'd have done that but being a photographer/author is not one of those things that zips you through an immigration process