Elitism in the art/social media community
This journal is mainly aimed towards the people in charge of those sites. Hope I’m expressing myself in the right way since english isn’t my first language. So if I come across rude or nonsensical, I apologize.
Here is something that bucks me since a long time and I tried to ignore it, but lately I find it especially annoying and frustrating: It’s how artists, especially the smaller fishes, are treated in art communities. I’m not a bad artist and I know plenty of other super talented people who are in the same situation: being permanently stuck on the bottom no matter how hard we try. Examples: Tumblr keeps featuring the same artists(often with rather bad art which looks like effortless/loveless Flash/msPaint stuff and is in many cases even traced from photos) or artists that are already super popular. 99% of recommendations I get on Tumblr is super famous artists. But why not featuring and recommending lesser known artists?
I usually find them on my own or from reposts of people I follow, without Tumblr’s “help”. And it is sad to see how many lesser known artists get buried under the already famous artists.
Deviantart is no different. Especially lately it shows. People, including famous artists, leave DA, because this site keeps spiraling downwards. But what do they do now? Feature popular front page art and DDs from years ago on the front page again! Why not giving new artists a chance to shine? Same thing with DDs, the quality of the selected DDs got a little bit better, but if you look closely it is often old art too and in some cases even art of people that deactivated their accounts.
Youtube: While I don’t use my YT channel anymore; I notice something similar: If you are popular it seems you can get away with the worst kind of shit and still get featured and money, UNLESS many people speak up. While smaller/new content creators are constantly walking on eggshells to make sure their videos don’t get demonetized, deleted or their channels removed.
I don’t know how it is on other sites(like Twitter and Instagram), but wouldn’t surprise me if you find the same problem there. It feels like no matter where you go, sites try hard to keep already famous people on top and don’t give lesser known artists a chance. Some artists stay famous no matter where they go, so there is not much of a chance to compete since the winners are already chosen.
Might have written this before(not sure with Tumblr), but it is something that annoys me a lot lately. If anyone noticed, I don’t update as much anymore. I do have ideas but I just lack the drive and energy to draw it. Even uploading and posting my art tires me, because it feels like a waste of time. Right now I feel like I publish my drawings in a dark closet. The energy might comes back or not. Let’s see. End of rant
TL;DR: Small/new artists get hidden under the famous ones, no matter where you go.
yeah i'm thinking exactly the same