The Struggle Between Being Social and an Introvert is Real

One of the aspects of being a creative person that tends to slow me down is social media; specifically pertaining to marketing, social interacting and promotion. I don’t always want to be in the public’s eye and I’m not always feeling social. If fact, I’m much more reserved and introverted than perhaps my posts would reveal. I have a hard time with it. There are times when I just disconnect totally from social media – I find peace and relaxation during these times. They are necessary part of my creative endeavors and staying mentally healthy.

Introverts Have a Love-Hate Relationship with Social Media

I love helping people and offering an encouraging word to keep them inspired. I do enjoy getting good feedback when I show my artwork. There are times though, that I feel I’m only interacting when I have something to show or share and the time in between is just ghosted. I feel bad about that in a way. I also know that I’m not obligated to constantly interact with people on social media.

I’m sure there is a happy medium somewhere but my predominating personality trait is to isolate and create. Then I come outside to see everyone and get my social meter back up. This pattern works for me, but I don’t want to isolate others in the process. That’s how followers are lost – or so I’m told on social media. And I’m not sure how well it works for promotion – people don’t want to be sold on something, they want to get to know the artist. This is hard too. I’m a private person yet having to show my life more publicly due to the nature of my business.

It’s a tightrope walk for me and probably many other creatives as well. We are mainly introverted and atypical socially.

Since the whole 2020 pandemic debacle, I haven’t felt much like painting – or maybe I fell out of the habit. I had a rhythm down which was working. But I’ve made a ton of life changes since this time last year and the pattern fell away. I feel bad about that but the problem with creating is: if you don’t have much inspiration for it, it’s hard to do it.

Consistency vs. Creativity vs. Working

And I’ve moved on to writing for now and focusing on that. I’m not the best at multitasking, and I don’t feel bad about that at all. Want to live a convoluted reality? Go ahead and multitask your life away. How can I ever give my full attention to anything and make progress if I’m constantly distracted by 10 other things? It makes no sense really. Even so, I should make a goal of at least getting back into completing one painting a week. That wasn’t so hard. I think at the time it was a pressure release from work.

Sometimes I think I struggle with consistency, and maybe so. But I also am sensitive to going with the flow – if something is going to work better then I’m not resistant to try it. I think these things can work in tandem, I just need a bit more practice with the balancing.

Creatives can also be a little all-over-the-place 🙂 Hopefully I can branch out again into the painting soon. I do miss it. And I’m still unsure of the direction of this blog. I really am not interested in becoming a professional blogger – too much time and money invested for little results. If people like my work and want to connect, I’m here. That’s about all I can offer right now.

Have a great week everyone~

Featured image by Patrick Tomasso