Been Doing Some Thinking On What It Means To Be An Internet Artist In 2024 And It Kind Of Sucks Tbh.

been doing some thinking on what it means to be an internet artist in 2024 and it kind of sucks tbh. there's so much focus on numbers, but numbers aren't fulfilling. what really matters to me is community engagement, or the actual response i get from my audience. a number (be it a like or reblog) doesn't tell me anything. but tags do, postulating about the meaning of my drawings in the tags or my inbox or replies means something. but you can't get those kind of thoughtful comments without reblogs. and then, those thoughtful comments are SO few and far in between, it's genuinely kind of depressing. like, let's say you post a drawing and it gets 100 notes. great! 90 of them are likes and 10 of them are reblogs. MAYBE one person will tag it with any of their personal thoughts. and that's a big maybe. even small comments like "cute!" or "i love this so much omg" are worth more than silence. idk. i've been on the internet for a really long time and this new wave of reclusiveness from audiences just kind of sucks. it's demotivating and isolating and it takes a lot of the joy out of creating. when you think to yourself, "man, i bet they'll love this drawing!" only to have like, two people tops say as much... when u post ur art online for free like i do, that engagement is literally The Only Thing u get out of it. so it's sad to watch in real time as it becomes sparser and sparser. whatever. who cares (i do.)

I hope Hank doesn’t find out about my meth business lmao

its official: tumblr is selling our data to Midjourney

404 Media

Tumblr and Wordpress to Sell Users’ Data to Train AI Tools

Internal documents obtained by 404 Media show that Tumblr staff compiled users' data as part of a deal with Midjourney and OpenAI.

we'd been hearing rumors about this for a bit but now its open and out there. some details from this article

it goes without saying, but if @staff goes through with this its going to be an utter shitshow and im all but certain the website will not survive it.

For any kids:

You are not supposed to be afraid of your parents

You never deserve to be hit (not even lightly, not even if you killed someone)

No one has the right to touch you without permission, not even your family members, including your parents

Your parents can love you and still hurt you, that does not make the hurt okay

Adults you trust can still be wrong

It's not normal for everything to always be overwhelming

If you are having a problem with any of these things, do your best to talk to a licensed therapist (if they are licensed therapists they legally cannot tell your parents your personal information)

You deserve happiness

You deserve privacy

You deserve to feel good

You are not alone in your struggles

Your struggles are valid, no matter how small they are

You deserve love and kindness

You deserve to be surrounded by people who love you and care for you

Edit: lots of people are commenting saying that therapists can and do tell parents information about what their child says in therapy, the legality of this depends on your age and what type of information it is. Here is what the American Psychological Association says about it

Discussing confidentially with your therapist beforehand is a good idea so you know how your specific therapist feels, but it's horrible that that's something you have to do. You still deserve privacy as a child.

If you are in a situation where you can't tell your therapist something, please get the information out of yourself somehow. I recommend saying it out loud if you can even if it's just to yourself.

Failing that, write whatever it is down and get rid of the paper so it's unreadable if you have to, it's better than keeping everything inside.