Coming back to the tree house!

I finally did it! I have figured out what kind of artist I want to be, how I want to represent myself here with meggilu house and other artistic ventures. Most importantly I figured that I need to utilize the internet/ platforms in a more smart and minimal way to make more room for real life and even my health. 

Lately, I have really opened my eyes to how awful and harmful social media like Instagram and Facebook really are for at least my well being. To make a long rant short, these social media platforms started out as a great way to keep in touch with family, friends, colleagues, artists, and communities around the world; but they have morphed into these data/content machines that mine human behavior for revenue. It's quite alarming to me, and it also depresses me. I feel disconnected, unproductive, and absolutely drained with nothing to show for it. As an artist I used these platforms (more like felt forced to) in order to get my content out there to maybe get a job or even grow my own business. However, all I'm really doing is handing my hard work over to these social media companies for free stream of content that keeps people glued there, scrolling. The longer they're there, the more ads they'll see of course! This video I found explains it best, and really helped me make the move in a direction away from most social media.

Over the past few days I have gotten rid of 3 out of 4 (yeesh) Instagram accounts. One was my personal account that I have had for 9 years, and I do not feel bad about it at all. I actually feel great, I feel like I have freed up more of my time to focus on actually doing stuff rather than finding myself scrolling an explore page or dash for hours throughout my day. Meggilu House is no longer going to be on Instagram (the account is still active to point people that followed me here), and instead I'm super excited to be back here blogging like I used to. It feels way more like home, comfortable, and real. This is my own little space where I can express myself as I please; and I'm not struggling to stand out, getting discouraged by "better art than mine", or at the mercy of an ever changing, greed motivated algorithm. The one account I have left somewhat active on there will be like an artist portfolio account until I can find a better alternative (I really miss old Flickr).

I'm sure this post's tone seems way more negative than positive, but I can assure you that things are definitely looking up and I hope to return here from time to time to tell the world how and what I'm doing!