Read on Twitter
In light of recent events, I& #39;d like to take the opportunity to express my thoughts on online art communities and how they lead to the situations we& #39;ve been seeing lately.
To clarify, I have never met John Bob, he doesn& #39;t know me.
Here is a very long thread:
To clarify, I have never met John Bob, he doesn& #39;t know me.
Here is a very long thread:
The internet is making it easier for people to abuse themselves and each other. The worst part is that a lot of it is under the guise of support and positivity when in actuality, it is the suppression of critical thinking and self-reflection. We& #39;re all guilty of this in some way.
I see a lot of people my age softening. Artists are typically sensitive and introverted people. The internet enables them to live within their comfort zone and, in fact, be rewarded for doing so. This is not constructive for a person& #39;s development as an artist OR a human being.
I think John Bob is a prime example of this. He is a generally unhappy, reclusive person. Dissatisfied with his home life, his relationships, his work, etc. Twitter should have been a perfect outlet for him to express his struggles creatively and constructively.
But he didn& #39;t use it correctly. John, like many others, used social media for instant gratification. He posted art, people showered him with attention, he felt good for a short while and then fell into a lonely depression once the dopamine hit had worn off. Here& #39;s a cool diagram:
Not only is this extremely unhealthy and self-destructive behaviour, but I think it also impacts you negatively as an artist. If you& #39;re creating purely for the attention of others, then you probably aren& #39;t creating anything long-lasting or fulfilling.
John developed a safe and wholesome persona, knowing it would please the right people. But he despised doing this because it wasn& #39;t true to himself. He wasn& #39;t expressing himself as an artist, which is a very backward and miserable thing to do.
You can see this cycle for yourself, whether in Discord servers or large social media groups; there is a general sense of false hyper-positivity as if every single person there is terrified of being real with each other. People don& #39;t realise how damaging it can be.
I agree that unsolicited criticism can be difficult or insulting, especially if it isn& #39;t constructive. But I think living in an echo chamber is much more dangerous; if all your friends are yes-men, treading on eggshells, you will likely feel very lonely and unfulfilled.
Lastly, I think another issue is the strange normalization of genuine horniness out in the open. We saw this with John too, and I think it should& #39;ve been a huge red flag that provoked the people who knew him to have some sort of intervention. Happy people don& #39;t do this.
I feel as though this type of behaviour is dysfunctional and similar to that which we saw in the leaked DMs, he took advantage of the general attitude towards horniness online to get what he wanted with ease. His cute cuddly persona only made it easier.
To wrap up, I think people should be more aware of their own relationships. Don& #39;t falsely heighten your own positivity, don& #39;t make people afraid of being critical (if appropriate) of you or others. Learn to identify and address these issues when you see them.
Ensure you have people supporting you personally in private and don& #39;t go around looking for an easy sexual outlet like John did. He ruined himself and others because he didn& #39;t consider the vulnerability of the people he was being & #39;horny& #39; with.
Here are some relevant tweets I thought were funny:
