The Algorithm's Gonna Get You

I Coulda Been A Content-er

I like art. I follow a lot of artists online, and that means my social media feeds are filled with a lot of lovely pretty pictures, and discussions of how art is made, a large loose community of people making things. This means that, in an eternal spiral of attempting to lock my eyeballs to my screen permanently, I get a lot of other artists recommended to me, especially through things like Instagram.

More and more, I’m noticing trends with these (often very talented!) artists. The ones that get shown to me are the ones that are good at “playing the game” of social media, much better than I. They provide points of engagement (“comment your favourite <x> below!”) or intentional teases to retain viewership (“make sure you watch until the end to see the final piece!”) or even further calls to action (“part two of this on my profile!”). Many of these artists have 5-10 times as many followers as me, so they must be doing something right.

But I just find it all a bit…tedious?

I think there’s a big difference between art and content. The two can overlap, but generally I think art is the thing that humans want to make (and consume), and content is the wrapper we’ve all been forced to have it delivered in. It’s not enough to make the thing, it has to have a 30 second skit accompanying it. It has to all be part of the “brand”, a unified container to make it digestible enough to fit comfortably alongside the myriad of other horrors on the timeline. But all this means, from my perspective, is we are subjected to a lot of insubstantial filler that we are forced through to get to the good stuff.

Take, for example, process videos. It can be very relaxing and informative to watch someone paint their masterpiece (people loved Bob Ross, after all!) However, the kind of process video that “performs” on social media is extreme close-ups of single unconnected brushstrokes, brief glimpses to entice viewers before the final reveal. In my opinion, this isn’t really that useful to a viewer, it’s not instructional, nor is it entertaining - it’s just a bit of wasted time to keep the viewer on the page for longer. Once you start to notice this sort of thing, it becomes increasingly clear where the “art” ends and the “content” begins, and you see how creators now have to fit into the boxes that will get them viewership. And to be clear, I don’t even think creators do this sort of thing to deliberately mislead their audience - they’re just doing what is expected of them by the platforms they’re displaying work on.

Personally I think this is short-sighted. It’s a trap! Sacrifices at the altar of the algorithm God seem risky to me - there is no guarantee that producing “content” by the platform’s terms will reward you with more traffic, and even if it does work, you’re then locked into the groove of having to constantly produce content to feed the monster. Stray from the trends too often and you’ll be punished for it. It doesn’t matter if the rules change, or if you decide to try something different, you could easily lose your place in the queue - with someone right behind you with clickbait ready to take your place.

But I don’t want to spend my valuable creation time trying to chase numbers on the shifting tectonic plates of social media. I’ve attempted it in the past, and it’s too beyond my control to justify expelling all my effort on. Instead, I make what I like, and attempt counter-programming.

Counter-programming for me is deliberately going against trends, not allowing myself to be boxed in by having to produce content that marches to someone else’s beat. I mostly don’t make video things because I don’t wanna. I draw some really obscure things because they amuse me, even if I know they won’t get a lot of likes. I don’t try to “trick” my followers into engaging further with my work - you’re welcome to look at it, you can comment if you like but I’m not gonna force you, and if you want to support it financially, I’m very up front about how you can do that. In short, I’m not really interested in playing the “content” game. It doesn’t make me content.

Against all logic, I find this approach works pretty well? By letting the work be the main focus of my output, I think the type of person who sticks around (hopefully that’s you, you handsome person) is here because they know upfront what they’re getting. I don’t have a crazy huge following, but I’m grateful that the people who do like my work seem to really like it, rather than just see it as another momentary distraction on the timeline. I suspect that’s because of intentional counter-programming, because people know what I am delivering is not just to appease Zuckerberg, or Musk, or whoever. I try to be authentically me, and I think people like authenticity. I’d rather have 1000 people who actually connect with my work than 100,000 who idly scroll past it on their way to the next stop on the content bus, and being unique and against the grain cultivates that kind of audience.

I don’t even know if this is good advice necessarily, or just…a thing I do. Maybe I’m subconsciously addicted to the relatively obscurity, and my self-proclaimed anti-establishment attitude prevents me from actively seeking out success on regular terms. And, if we’re being honest, to counter-program this advice would be to submit to the algorithm completely anyway, so do what you want, I’m not your dad. I just know that I do this to make cool and fun stuff, not to make TikToks.

Legend of the Mole-Man, Pages 24-25

Page 24 is on of the stupidest things I’ve ever drawn. Remember, if you fall behind or want to read the whole thing, just go here!

Shameless Promotion

I don’t have anything specific to promote this month as everything I’m working on is a bit top secret! Sadly this means I am very poor so please check out my store!

Every Simpsons Character Ever #0254 - Benjamin Franklin

He's not identified by name within the scene, but there's no denying who this is.

Key clues to his identity are the fact that he references his inventions and, you know, the fact that he looks like Benjamin Franklin.

I was getting a little tired of the almost monochrome colour palette so I decided to draw Ben's appearance from a more well known appearance, in season four's "Homer The Heretic":

It wasn't until right now that I realised there is another scene portraying the signing of the Declaration of Independence, in season 6's "Homer the Great":

If either of these versions is true, it looks like it was a wonderful day. This depiction of Franklin as a drunken lout continues into season 11's "Pygmoelian", where he is shown in the "Alco-Hall of Fame":

The quote "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" is often misattributed to Franklin, and it appears he actually loathed drunkenness.

He also appears on the hundred dollar bill, and speaks to Homer in season 16's "Mobile Homer":

His final appearance to date in the show is in season 20's "Gone Maggie Gone", in which it is revealed that he, George Washington and King George III faked the Independence War. Shocking late post reveal!

This isn't even his strangest appearance: he appears as a very late boss in The Simpsons Game from 2007.

It's very bizarre, comes out of nowhere. I'm looking to see if I can feasibly play this game, we'll see if it's possible.

This was the final speaking character of "Bart Gets an F"! So far: I'm enjoying season 2!

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