Something to Consider ~Social Networking and the Creative

To Like or Not to Like

Nexus Café – Season Two – Episode 3

July 26, 2015

“Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.”

John Wooden

These days, it is all too easy to sacrifice quality for quantity. Social Networking requires constant content to stay relevant. For the artist, the drive to produce often means their work suffers.  There is no denying that connecting with like minded creators the world over is amazing BUT can all too often be addictive. Relationships fostered, have become much like the work being produced. Again, a question of sacrificing the quality of the relationships we’re building over the quantity of relationships we’ve found ourselves trying to keep alive.

I’ve spent a huge amount of time I could have spent writing, producing crap quotations and sharing and promoting the work of others who are trying to build a name for themselves.  Often, I have found myself sharing work I may find inferior or not to my liking,for the sake of returning a like or a share. Other times, I have promoted others fiercly, in the hopes the action might be returned, never to receive so much as a thank you, let alone  support of my own work.  I was paying very little attention to the quality of the relationships I was building, and my work,not to mention my heart, suffered for it.

It’s important to remember it’s real people on the other end of the connections we are making (no matter the name they give you) Real people are subject to a host of personality types and it is so vital we don’t take their rejections personally.  To quote a popular facebook share…Not everyone has the same heart as you.

No matter the quality of work you’re producing, if you dedicate hours a day to your networking platforms, your numbers are going to grow. Likes will increase. Shares will too. But are you willing to forgo the passion that drives you to create to see something you wouldn’t have dreamed of showing the world a year or two ago? It belittles the purpose of creating. Those divine moments when our passions connect us to a part of the world’s magic that is forgotten in numbers and popularity contests.

“With fame, you can't trust everybody. You can't depend on them being there for you as a person. They will only be there because of what you've got and what you can bring to their life. It's not a relationship-it's a leech.”

Chris Brown

Don’t let the leech suck the creativity out of you.  Return to the notebooks, the canvas, the crayons.  Create with integrity and let your work speak for itself. Don’t be manipulated by trends, hashtags, and marketing ploys to snag your hard won dollars in order to be seen. Know the game that’s being played and let your work speak for you.  The rewards of my poetry are so much sweeter when I haven’t pimped the soul out of it. When a stranger who owes me nothing stumbles upon a blog post and is kind enough to share…simply because it spoke to them.

Use the platforms as tools…not life lines. Share your work…don’t sell your soul.

“The definition of success to me is not necessarily a price tag, not fame, but having a good life, and being able to say I did the right thing at the end of the day.”

Jeremy Luke

Natasha Head

AKA: Tashtoo

 Listen to the entire episode here:  The Creative Nexus Cafe - Season 2 - Episode 3

When Bringing Out Your Best Means Bringing Out Your Worst

When Bringing Out Our Best Results in Bringing Out Our Worst

A Conversation About Competition

The Nexus Café ~ Season Two ~ Episode One

Airdate Sunday, May 24th, 2015

Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Useful up to a certain point…as Mr. Roosevelt noted so many years ago. When used to bring out our best, of course it serves our purpose, and in return, the greater good. But how many of us, have crossed lines, only to serve ourselves? Whether in sports, business, or creative endeavors, seldom does competition build anything more than resentment, self-doubt, and poor sportsmanship. How much winning is enough? How do we measure our success? Most, terribly, resort to the dollars in the bank. What we have to materialistically show for our efforts. In most cases, the harder won the fruit has been, the less likely the majority of us are to share those rewards.  How does competition benefit the whole…beyond the self? 

So long as the system of competition in the production and exchange of the means of life goes on, the degradation of the arts will go on; and if that system is to last for ever, then art is doomed, and will surely die; that is to say, civilization will die.

William Morris

What integrity is to be found in our work when we are creating for the sheer purpose of production? When the goal becomes audience pleasing, staying relevant, or keeping with the trends.  The internet and social networking has given every voice a platform. Every voice a chance. Alas, not every voice has quality. Not every voice is backed by a hefty wallet capable of controlling its audience.  It’s hard not to try to keep up with the pace that is being set. It’s hard, reaching out to the world, sharing a piece of your self, and seeing no response. Creators are nothing if not human, and its difficult not to fall to our flaws.  The popularity contests are difficult not to get caught up in and even more difficult to not let it have a bearing on the quality of our work.

We can overcome this competitive compulsion by building solid and sincere communities that are based on real relationships. These communities can be a safehouse against the media, consumeristic need to produce. A collective that is based on cooperation…not competition. A family that will stay with you, even when your voice goes silent. A community that at it’s core is concerned with the health and well being of its members, not their following. A fair and equitable system of exchange, not driven by gallop polls and best seller charts.  In our hearts…we know how little the ranking systems of today mean…but in our heads, they still steal space.

The object of this competition is not to be mean to the losers but to find a winner. The process makes you mean because you get frustrated.

Simon Cowell

When the goal is to find a winner…you can’t pretend its not about excluding the losers. Frustration is never an excuse to be mean…but it happens. Resentment, ego, bitterness…there is no person who is not partial to these all too human conditions.

It is nice to have valid competition; it pushes you to do better.

Gianni Versace

 VALID competition. There is no doubt that competition can bring out or best. But who is to be the judge of what is valid. How do we please everyone?

Nature is based on harmony. So it says if we want to survive and become more like nature, then we actually have to understand that it's cooperation versus competition.

Bruce Lipton

 Ultimately, we have to come from a place of cooperation in order to reap the rewards of competition. A place where the winner, represents the community as a whole. A representative who has taken the best aspects of their environment, learned, loved, and prospered, and who is willing to bring that community with them when they win. It is a community who celebrates the win. Who is able to take from the accolade their own part in producing the victory. Who can move forward with pride in knowing that they had a role to play, and with the designated winner, who is also able to acknowledge the importance of the whole. Cooperation BEFORE competition, and cooperation AFTER.

Natasha Head

You'll find all our episodes here  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/creativenexus

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