In time, we discover ourselves

I was discussing, with my photographer friend, Andy, the endless and inevitably futile task of chasing likes and shares for one’s creative output online. He’s a relative newbie to social media and this quest for some kind of validation having only taken up photography and joined social media several years ago. Me? I’ve probably wasted decades chasing something that doesn’t exist, posting endless photos to some, but ultimately insufficient acclaim, sharing songs and instrumentals on all kinds of platforms and reaping scant reward in terms of listens and that zero-probability chance of being discovered. I suppose I am reasonably Zen about it all, especially after so long. There was a time, at least, when my science writing had some traction. This website was getting 20000 unique viewers every day at one point. I had 54000+ Twitter followers back in the day, and it helped my book Deceived Wisdom reach the giddy heights of an Amazon bestseller for a couple of weeks, ranking higher than contemporaneous publications from Prof Brian Cox and Sir David Attenborough, which was certainly gratifying. You will notice, it’s something I am still talking about more than a decade later. I’ve ranked fairly well for some of my photos, songs, websites, and writing, have even won a few awards for all of those things, with the exception of the music, admittedly. I’ve had reach and traction, I’ve had those much-vaunted likes and shares. If this were a...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Mental Health Social Media Writing Source Type: blogs