Social Media and the Quest for Validation

Creative Block → 007

---

Creative Block is a weekly newsletter that gives you a glimpse into my life, creativity, design, and music. It's like a little pick-me-up that you get delivered straight to your inbox each week.

---

Designed by me :)

---

When social media first emerged, its primary focus was on connection and building networks of friends and like-minded individuals. It was a different time, marked by a sense of freedom. It felt like recess—a time to hang out with friends, catch up, and enjoy connecting in a new environment. In this case, the environment was digital.

However, as we fast forward to 2023, social media has transformed into a grand stage where we vie for attention. It has become a competition centered around going viral, accumulating followers, and even making income as an "influencer." The foundation of genuine connection has been overshadowed by narcissism. We now strive to be in the spotlight, craving the attention of others, often at the cost of being our authentic selves.

Our desire to be in the spotlight and have all eyes on us has taken precedence over authenticity. We find ourselves following trends in the hope of achieving fame as well. Our focus has shifted from being true to ourselves to being preoccupied with gaining followers. We sometimes sacrifice our identity in exchange for the pursuit of popularity and a sense of worthiness.

It is disheartening to witness people whose TikTok or Instagram accounts have been deleted, make a new one and include in their bio the number of followers they had on their previous accounts as a measure of their worth or importance.

For example: “Account deleted at 120k Followers” “TikTok 650k followers”

So why do we allow social media and our followers/likes to validate us? If we log onto Instagram already lacking self-confidence, we will fall into the trap of seeking our confidence solely from social media. Don’t get me wrong i’ve bene inspired by somethigns I’ve seen on social media but social media cannot cure insecurities or lack of self confidence. In fact it makes it worse 99% of the time. The problem with trying to find your self worth or confidence on social media is that the same people who build us up can easily tear us down.

I used to post and refresh every two minutes, hoping that my likes would increase. It was a terrible cycle because whenever I shared my art, which I was proud of, and it didn't receive enough likes, I started doubting its quality. I would think to myself, "I must have done something wrong. Maybe the artwork is not good enough. Maybe I suck?"

I realized that I was letting my followers dictate how "valuable" my work was. I was living for their validation.

I joined Instagram just like many of you back in 2011/2012. Today, I have 127k followers, and one thing I am more focused on is building a genuine community of people who love my work and love me. It saddens me when people perceive my value based solely on my follower count because each and every one of you is worthy! You matter. God made you in His image, and that alone makes you deserving of love, community, friendship, and everything else.

Forget about the numbers! My goal is to cultivate an authentic and real community, which is why I created Creative Block. I'm nearly at a thousand subscribers now, and I'm incredibly grateful to you all. It's not about the validation those numbers provide, but rather the encouragement and humility that come from knowing that you all genuinely care about my unfiltered thoughts, my work, my life, and my success. It means a great deal to me.

Now, let's get back to what I was saying. Social media should be a tool, not your identity. Before you post, ask yourself these questions:

- Why am I posting?

- Am I seeking validation? And if I don't receive

it, then what?

- Am I being honest in this post, or am I merely seeking attention?

- Is this a moment I should keep to myself? Perhaps I can share it with my close friends instead.

Personally, I want to improve in all these aspects. I'm sharing this because even though you can hide likes on Instagram, I found myself checking the likes on a previous post a couple of days ago, as if it would change anything. It didn't. Do you know why? Because at the end of the day, the likes are never enough. If you go viral once, your goal becomes going viral again. If you receive 1,500 likes on a post, you'll want 2,000 next, and so on. It's an endless game, and I'm done chasing that high.

Now, I post and move on with my day. If people like it, cool. If they don't, cool. As long as I love what I share, that's all that matters.

Designing posters has been incredibly therapeutic for me, and I am determined to protect that process by any means necessary. Part of protecting it involves setting a boundary—I will not let social media or trends dictate the value of the work I create. Instead, I will share my art as a gift to others.

---

Weekly Column of Inspiration 🧶

📔 Read:

1. Offline Time
   by
   Lee Tilghman
   - Words from an ex-influencer who critically gazes at our digital lives, recovering "extremely online"

2. To Say Less by

   Human Stuff from Lisa Olivera

3. I Can’t Please Everyone by

   Unsupervised

👁 See:

Designed this yesterday. Pretty proud of it.

🎧 Hear:

This just dropped and it’s been on replay! Kaytranada x Amine