I've been reflecting on the value of 'growing my audience' as a web3 artist. I have read many threads (mostly from influencers) advocating for this to 'make it' in the space.

It never sat well with me. A smol 🧵

1. Influencers will advocate for you to grow your audience to achieve one thing: more money. The idea is:

The larger, more hooked your audience is to your story/activities/suggestions, the more likely they are to advance your financial goals.

2. This idea has strings attached: the commodification of your person.

You, the aspiring influencer, are ultimately the commodity. Which then means, you as a person/commodity, become subject to market forces.

Not what you do, but who you are, is at the mercy of the market.

3. I might be old school about this, but the idea that an artist can comfortably be both a free-thinking/feeling/expressing entity, as well as a commodity on a market seems antithetical.

If anyone has found a way to be these two things simultaneously, I'd love to hear about it

4. In my early days here, I saw the tactics to grow one's audience (and ultimately be an influencer) become 'this is just what being a web3 artist is like'.

Shilling, engagement farming, spending hours in Spaces for a 1 min chance at speaking, twittering ad vitam aeternam.

5. For people who are naturally extroverted and who get energized by these activities, it's a no-brainer. If like me, your social battery is tiny, the journey to burnout is swift and certain.

What if being an artist in web3 never meant becoming a social media influencer?

6. What if there is a reality in which the goals of being on this app are:

a. forming connections with other art-loving humans to feel inspired

b. sharing our truthful experiences of this wild web3 experiment in the hopes it will attain its founding aspirations

c. playing!

7. What if there is a reality in which:

a. we don't feel guilt for not being on this app constantly

b. our sense of self-worth is not commensurate with our follower count

c. we don't have to constantly sell to the point of selling our very essence to the highest bidder

8. I am prone to speculation and drawn to world-building. In my mind, the step between what I imagine and what is real is just that — a step.

That disposition brought me to web3.

9. That same disposition rejects the idea that web3 artists have to submit to social media algorithms and become commodities in order to survive, let alone find any kind of longevity in the space.

There must be a kinder alternative that protects artistic freedom and expression.

10. I am curious: has anyone found a haven outside of these forces? any hacks to the system? any projects to build the future of web3 outside of it?

What are the alternatives you've experienced as an artist in web3? Even for a brief moment?