Social media has done something genuinely strange to the world at large. It has especially affected artists and made visibility feel like currency as artists constantly battle a changing algorithm and AI for attention.
It used to be that a strong following opened doors. It got you in front of collectors, curators, and commissioners who might never have found you otherwise. It was a legitimate marketing tool and for many artists it replaced the gallery system entirely as their primary sales channel.
But there is a shadow side to this that does not get talked about enough.
When your income depends on engagement, you start making creative and financial decisions based on what performs rather than what matters. You price work based on what you think your audience expects rather than what it actually costs to make. You take on commissions that look good on a grid but drain you. You give away process, knowledge, and expertise for free because that is what gets the most saves.
The algorithm rewards generosity with your time and content. It rewards billionaires with your free labour while it robs you of attention and real life community.
It does not pay your studio rent.
It becomes a comparison trap. Social media creates a very convincing illusion of other artists’ financial success.
The artist who appears to be selling work constantly.
The artist who just announced a major residency or a gallery show.
What you are not seeing is whether they are actually being paid fairly, how much of that is funded by family money, or how much debt is sitting behind the aesthetic.
Comparing your financial reality to someone else’s curated highlight reel is one of the fastest ways to make bad financial decisions. It creates artificial urgency, false benchmarks, and a distorted sense of what a sustainable practice actually looks like.
Social media can be a tool. Like any tool, it can support your practice or undermine it depending on how consciously you use it.
Are you making financial decisions based on your own values and your actual numbers?
Or are you making them based on what you think you should be doing because of what you see online?
That distinction matters.