Just some random thoughts

One of the biggest issues I have with social media is also one of the things I love about it. As an artist and writer who is trying to make a name for myself, I have to be completely transparent, especially when it comes to social media. It requires you to put yourself out there and in doing so, you open yourself to scrutiny, overbearing followers, and of course, admirers and buyers. The last two are what you want, but unfortunately, you have to take the first two as well.
It's often been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. That being said, 'likes' on Facebook and Instagram also speak a thousand words. When the same person continually likes and follows your work, the public make the assumption that either a. the person is a huge fan, or b. maybe they have a "thing" going on. People who suffer from low self esteem tend to latch on to the latter, that the artist, author, actor, must have a "thing" going on with the person liking their pics. They form an idea about that 'like' button and the poster is now guilty of those ideas.
The worst part of it all, is that the ones who form these ideas have the luxury of keeping their own life (and shall we add, dirt) private, all the while making assumptions about the poster.
The reason I write this blog is because of a comment that was made from someone just based off of 'likes' on my art. I have a few people who follow me regularly, and I guess that means I have some kind of relationship with them. A friend once told me that the guy who created the 'like' button, Justin Rosenstein, regrets ever creating it. He said that people validate themselves off of a like. Think about it, people actually pay for likes on Instagram. That's like paying people to give you an applause after doing a show. Who does that? Either people like my shit or they don't.
That being said, if people feel validated based off of likes, I can't imagine how many relationships are destroyed because a woman saw her boyfriend getting a lot of likes from a woman, and assumed he and she were involved.
It's disgusting. It really is.