More on Web 2.0 - Social Media: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Having read Selene's post on Web 2.0, where she challenges how good having it in our lives actually is and due to a recent incident I witnessed on a Facebook group for professional artists, I wanted to speak a bit about social media in the profession.
I would like to start with the good things about social media:
- The first one is NETWORKING. Social media is a fantastic way to keep in touch with your current professional network, as well as expand it by meeting and engaging with people in industry related forums such as Facebook groups for professional actors. I could not imagine life without this especially with how many times social media's helped me (check out my blog post on task 3A 'My Professional Network' for some examples!).
- Secondly OPPORTUNITIES. It has only been recently that I discovered how many genuine opportunities are on social media for performers, writers and other theatre practitioners. Since we started the course I have really engaged into professional forums on Facebook and have tried to discover the best ones, as let's face it there are some terrible ones out there too. I have discovered small, but amazing theatre companies and got to audition for or submit work to lots of them and as a result of one audition I have started my journey as a spoken word poet. Discovering even more opportunities for this aspect of the industry.
- PAID WORK is not rare either. It depends on the forum again and you need to be careful and have your bullshit filter on, but there are often some good jobs being shared on social media, usually if someone is looking for something very specific.
Moving on to the bad things about social media:
- LACK OF PRIVACY/ANONYMITY. Of course there is no total lack of privacy, but you need to be constantly aware of who is in your friends list or who is in a group you want to post in. For example I might like to post a monologue I recorded in a group and ask for feedback, but maybe I don't want some people I went to drama school with to see it or maybe I want to ask for advice for an upcoming audition and I don't want people I know to find out I have such an audition.
- Becoming SELF CONSCIOUS. Having a lot of actors on your friends list can become intimidating as your newsfeed floods with their news. Except a lot of the time it's not actual news but people showing off how amazing their life is #actorslife. I know people are trying to make themselves feel better, potentially because their lives are not as amazing as they want us to think but the result is a vicious cycle of people becoming compelled to post such things because someone else did and if they don't do it everyone is going to think they're unsuccessful. No matter how much you stay out of it, if you're already having a rough day it will be hard to not let it get you down.
And finally the ugly things about social media:
- People being JUDGEMENTAL. There are a lot of forums for actors on Facebook and it took me a long time to separate the worthwhile ones from those full of bitter and judgemental people who are ready to crush any new comers who ask a question. This unfortunately is one of the ugly sides of the industry that can really dominate on social media.
- The ugly thing that inspired this post; BAD COMMUNICATION. Chatting online is missing two very integral parts of communication: body language and tone. You have no idea whether I smile as I type this or whether I am really angry banging my keyboard. I could be sarcastic or sincere and I could be judgemental or helpful. Anyone can read and interpret something you write however you like. I have learned that using emojis and language that really cannot be misintrepreted are ways to get your point across without your intentions being misinterpreted but that is not always possible. Recently I witnessed an incident in one of the Facebook forums I follow, which is full of supportive female artists, where things got completely out of hand. I distanced myself from the argument because I could see that with the lack of tone and body language this argument had no hope of being anything but a rant.
- And finally SPREADING LIES. Anyone can say anything on social media and there will be people that will believe it without any proof. That is concerning. You need to always make sure your sayings cannot be misinterpreted and that you are prepared to challenge people who say lies about you in a diplomatic way.
I am really glad my blog inspired you to write more about it. I do agree with most of the things you wrote about, but still I can't help myself thinking how the negatives take over the positives. Paradoxically the networking for me goes into a negative instead of a positive because being so easy to communicate, being so easy to send an email (takes no more than 30 seconds) everybody does it. There are so many people being in contact with everyone that it falls into a negative cause you are just one in a million getting in touch with that company/director/producer. Instead, doing the effort of going to a shop, buying a letter, writing it (and really thinking about what to write first as there is no delete button, meaning that it takes more time and thought), going out again buying a stamp and sending it by post is far more of a longer process, and more expensive too. So perhaps people would not just copy-paste the same letter to all of the directors/producers etc (as they do with emails) cause it would cost too much money and time; but they would choose the ones who are really worth writing to. That way, you as an employee have more chances because you have far less competition, and the employer wins too as they have less demand but all the people who wrote that letter are genuinely passionate and knowledgeable for the role as it was among their top choices. I don't know if I made any sense. Anyway, thank you! your blogs always give good stimulus for conversation! xx
ReplyDeleteYes, I understand what you mean and sometimes it feels frustrating when you do actually make the effort and spent time writing the right email, but it will still most likely get lost in a sea of "not right" ones. On the other hand I feel that there are a lot of people who do send letters as well in order to have a better chance, and I have done this myself, but ultimately they have an equal chance on being ignored or put in a pile for the future. It's even more shocking when you include an SAE and they don't even care to return your headshot let alone reply. So what I'm trying to say is that I don't think the increase of completion and the fact that it's hard to get your foot in the door is directly linked to the use of Web 2.0. We just live in a time where the number of people who want to be actors constantly increases and this includes both people who are serious about it and those who are just trying it out. That raises a different question then; what can we do to make sure the company/director/producer knows that they shouldn't ignore our email/letter? The simple answer is make ours clear and on point so they know we are indeed what they're looking for. But that still doesn't guarantee that the email will not get ignored because it was sent at the same time as 20 others or the letter won't be ignored because it was put on a pile unopened and then forgotten. xx
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