INSTA AND I

I’ve been turning the question around since the news of Zuc’ aligning himself with the new American administration came out. I’ve read others’ takes, done my research about alternatives to this, made calculations on what my specific options are.

To my great dismay, I find myself, in the state of affairs, bending the knee. Sort of. 

I am staying. 

Unlike my most gregarious, and perhaps most obviously talented, peers, I’ve built much of my career thanks to social media. Looking at all the opportunities that I’ve both found and created for myself in these spaces, I recognise that without them, I likely would have faded in the background years ago, as a socially awkward introvert who graduated Art School with an unimpressive performance and who dreads parties.

Social media has been my way of getting my work out there, to stay (or get) on people’s radars. I’ve gotten performing, teaching and writing gigs out of it, through my images and words. 

I’ve become fluent at the survival euphemistic social media newspeak, danced and dodged around the ever-changing rules to avoid being thrown into the shadows.

My artistic ambitions aside, my career is my livelihood. It’s how I put food on my table and a roof over my head. It’s how I have any resources to redistribute through time and donations.

I am thinking and working on it, but at this stage, I don’t yet have an adequate alternative.

I am aware that I could lose this platform, and everything in it, any day and without notice. I am aware that keeping things that way is a control measure designed to keep us in line.

This is a very “gotcha!” moment. Never has it been more obvious that we’ve handed too much control over how we exist, work, and communicate to a handful of power-hungry, thin-skinned tech bros. We’ve boiled slowly like frogs. What started like funzies has many of us wake up today to photos of the Inauguration and thinking “shit”.

I live in the EU, which, despite all its political flaws and shortcomings, has kept some of the bros’ greed in line through the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA). With the changing landscape due to both European and American elections, it’s left to be seen how well these guard rails last, but for now and for what it’s worth, they’re there. I suggest we keep a close eye on our elected representatives, and remain ready to march.

I might be wrong, but Zuc’ strikes me as less of an arrogant, stubborn tyran, and more of a self-serving coward than Mus’. Which could be good or bad. 

Despite my own decision to stay, and as many others have had, I urge us to build work, networks and connection outside of the realms of these oligarchs, as much as putting up a fight for our place, speech and usage of online spaces.

Despite my own decision to stay, and as many others have had, I urge us to build work, networks and connection outside of the realms of these oligarchs, as much as putting up a fight for our place, speech and usage of online spaces.

But also, let’s remember to rest. Rest isn’t complacency. Rest is how we avoid the permanent exhaustion they want us in. Burnout neutralises you. Rest, not in the hyper-individualistic, consumerist way we’ve been conditioned into, but into what will allow you to survive this and show up for others. 

We gotta have each other’s backs.

That includes understanding and respecting that we all have different ressources and circumstances. Whether staying or leaving is the right choice, as well as larger political strategies, is not something we should shame and blast one another for.

Remember who and what we’re up against. Spoiler alert, it shouldn’t be one another. 

Godspeed to us.