saw The Post That Pisses Me Off again so let me clear this up:
Notes does not equal audience. Notes equals audience who decided to directly interact. This is in no way comparable to actors who require an audience to make a living. Actors do perform for an audience, but not without significant effort to obtain that audience through their own effort and the efforts of a whole organization behind them. The main reason theatres care about audience (as someone who worked in theatre for 10 years) is to make back the money that was used to make the show (and pay out whoever is at the top if it's for-profit). This is not the same thing as notes on a post on the internet.
It has never been easier to gain an audience than in the age of the internet. This comes with a trade-off. In the past, artists had to actually go somewhere and get permission to put their art in a place where people would see it and even then they might not get an audience. However, being in a physical space means that what audience you get, you can see it. You can talk to them. Posting online means that you are not in a physical space and so cannot see your audience. This does not mean the audience isn't there. People who view your art and do not interact with it ARE STILL AUDIENCE and they do not owe you interaction just because you posted online.
"It is normal to want an audience" Yes. Correct. But you must also realize that audience is an uncontrollable entity that you cannot always see, and their interaction is at their own discretion. If you post your art and 10 people see it--not interact. See.--if 10 people see it then you are doing better than a lot of artists in physical spaces in terms of audience. And I'm not even going to get into the artists who make physical art and never show it to anyone ever.
And I'll say it one more time, as I've said many times before, if you are making art with the sole desire of receiving attention, you need to reassess if you are engaging with your art in a healthy way.
