Effort vs. Engagement: The Irony of Trying to Create Something Against an Algorithm that Hates You

Today had been a busy day. I had my own doctor's appointment for some follow ups. Part of which was my doctor telling me to wear my old CPAP machine again as I hadn't been sleeping great, been snoring too loudly and my blood pressure and weight are creeping back up.

In the afternoon we took my mother in law for her cancer treatments. So, when I got home I was pretty beat and hadn't blogged anything. I did do the art in the header image later that evening to just get some creativity out and posted on Facebook with a caption about how my day had gone and my views on posting art in general these days.

Before bed, I posted this picture wearing my CPAP with the caption "I'm more machine than man now..." a joke from Star Wars.

I went to sleep and slept pretty hard until about 2am. I woke up like I usuallly do and staying up to decompress my brain while looking at my laptop. The art pic and caption on Facebook had gotten a whopping 2 views over 4-6 hours. The CPAP pic got 180. Talk about ridiculous. This isn't just something I deal with. Almost every artist and creator I know has this problem.

The Facebook algorithm favors faces over everything else and its the dumbest thing ever. I'm not ugly but I'm also not much to look at, especially not that often. So many artists I know just to get their work seen have to post reels of them holding their painting, process videos, dancing videos and everything else just to be seen.

Female artists have it extra hard because most of the comments they get on their paintings are about their appearance. Despite they spent days or weeks working on their art, people comment on their hair and outfit. Men get it some. I've had weird comments about things in the background, people asking me where is my cat or just silence with maybe 1 like and 500 views. Meaning people saw it, just didn't engage with it.

Gone are the days you can create a piece of art or writing and post it and most of your friends list sees it and will comment or share it. And Gods forbid you have any kind of links at all. Facebook has enshittified their algorithm so much, most people just now see sponsored posts or monetized conent full of click bait or just unrelated stuff not at all aligned with their interests.

I really hate what the internet has become, which is why I love having my blog on Ghost. Its kind of a throwback to the internet of old. The hard part is getting people to find me here. I can say pretty much anything I want and how I want and there isn't some clanker moderator that is going to throttle me or delete my account.

I don't know the solution. Every social media platform, X, Facebook, Instagram and Threads, most of which are owned by Meta have all tweaked their algo's so much getting anything seen that isn't rage bait is so hard. Though lately I've been getting more traction and views on X even though I only have 140 followers there, so still figuring that place out.

There is Bluesky which supposedly has no algorithm, but with 4500 followers on there its pretty much posting into an empty void. I noticed most of what is on there is political commentators just shouting and no one interacts. As a whole they don't like people promoting anything at all. And last I checked they had around 1 million active users compared to the major platforms 500 million to 1 billion users. This is all a numbers game so the you just up your chances of being seen by posting on the major platforms.

Now, please don't say "write and do art for yourself! Forget numbers!" I say this a lot, but for one some of us need the validation, but also I'm trying to create a community here so having it seen and acknowledges is important. It's easy to say that and if someone truly doesn't care that is great. But most artists I know what to be seen and many need to sell their art just to make a living and survive. I think the "do it just for the love of art!" devalues our hard work and says we don't deseve to be compensated for our blogs, books our artwork,

I'm not sure I have an actual point in any of this. I sure don't know the solution. Its frustrating and some how massive tech companies now run the internet which used to be open and fun and a place of opportunity. You can buy ads and i have tried that. Its good for a lot of clicks but with things like art and writing people who just click on ads are just drive bys. Not people who are actually engaging with your work.

So, I keep grinding and writing and sharing. My hope is something breaks through or an occasional blog post and art share cracks the code to be seen by more people. I've had big accounts share mywork which led to a ton of views and new subscribers, so if that happens that helps a lot. The trick is finding my people who will love my blogs and sart, subscribe and hang around engage and share. I guess the internet and promoting used to be a sprint, now its a marathon.

Sure you may have something that blows up and gains a lot of followers, but that isn't sustainable. Building slowly and carefully, building relationships with the people who are engaging with you and treating each one like they are the most important person is what matters.

I currently have 16 blog subscribers, and while that isn't an earth shattering number, I try to remember if I was in person and 16 people came up to me to ask about my blogs and art I'd be pretty excited. So I most definietly don't take any of them for granted. Anyone reading this I love and appreciate and you most definitely matter.

This is one trap I see artists fall under. Ones who complain all the time about the algorithm and they have 50K followers but only got 20 likes and are outraged, the frustration is understandable, but that also sounds like those 20 likes who are actual people, don't matter.

I also don't want to sound like a complainer with this blog. It is hard and no one owes me any success. I am thankful for everyone who follows me on all my platforms and who reads my blog. Just some days I feel like I'm spinning my wheels, and I hate that feeling. To artists who are frustrated with the algorithms, all I can say is keep going, and if you can make a website to create like your own gallery not on facebook please do so. Google and SEO will help people find you plus it makes you look more official.

To the casual users of meta and X, if you see posts that get your attention, click like, share, repost. Follow that person or even drop a kind word. When people tell me they connected with my work it always makes my day or even my week. This is how we can help and support each other. I realize the economy sucks right now and people are broke. People who have signed up for paid tiers for my blog, I am eternally thankful for you. But I don't expect such support at this stage in my writing. it is deeply appreciated, but not expected.

Anyway, that's my thoughts on this. I hope everyone hangs in there and doesn't give up. Take a break, take a breather or even pivot to something else for a bit. That's what i did. I stopped trying to sell art, now focusin on this blog and using it for a vehicle for my art. In the meamtime, keep the faith and when you can, laugh at the absurity of it all.

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