Curated Muse
Behind every creative work lies a purpose. Behind every great collection, a story.
From Hyperlux Magazine comes The Curated Muse Podcast—where we share intimate conversations with artists, collectors, and experts in art, design, and curation. Together, we explore the deep connections we form with objects—why we collect, what we create, and how these pieces shape our lives.
Through honest, thoughtful dialogue, we uncover the emotional ties to art and design, the history behind cherished items, and the magic of intentional living. This is The Curated Life—a celebration of inspiration, purposeful collecting, and meaningful creation.
Curated Muse
Artists Are Caught In Social Media's Dangerous Dopamine Cycle
Show Notes: https://hyperluxmagazine.com/artists-are-caught-in-social-medias-dangerous-dopamine-cycle/
Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Curated Muse podcast. In this episode, I want to talk to you about the dangerous cycle of dopamine when it is coupled with social media. Social media has been something that is a very big topic. It always is. It doesn't matter if it was 10 years ago or if it's relevant right now. There's always something to talk about with social media. whether or not it's how social media is scraping content for AI, how it's stealing your data, how it is completely manipulating you to stay on the app. And when we're talking about all these things, it is important to be aware of them. But many of you, including myself, use social media every single day because we need to run our business. It's a way for us to connect with people. It is a way for us to learn information. It is a way to build relationships. It's a way to support your community. Social media is something that is a beautiful asset, but at the same time, a detriment. So when we talk about dopamine and association with social media, dopamine is a neurotransmitter, a chemical messenger in the brain that plays a key role in the brain's reward system. It releases when we experience something pleasurable or beneficial, and it will reinforce that behavior. And it will encourage you to repeat it. So when we post on social media, And we get a rewarding response, even if it's small. It doesn't have to be hundreds upon hundreds of people, but a decent response. Even a couple really nice comments, even one nice comment can then encourage your brain to then want to do the same thing over again and hoping to get the same response. But when you post something and you think, oh, this is pretty good. I think this could get a similar response. And all of a sudden the air is dead. No likes, no comments, no nothing. It creates a downward spiral into a feeling of depression. And the funny thing is, is this goes on every day all the time for so many people that it's not even recognized. That people won't even recognize that something has occurred on social media that was a downer and that it's actually affecting them into their daily life. And the reason for that is because unlike years ago, we have more information coming at us than we can even manage as human beings. We were never supposed to live in a world where you're scrolling on your phone and you've now taken in 65 videos, 25 people's different voices, different faces, different fonts, different colors, different sounds. It is a lot for the human body. And to take in all of that information all at one time, you have to be able to filter that in and out of your life. So how that relates to how you experience social media and the ups and downs as an artist is that so much information is coming in that even if a post that you shared, you felt pretty good about it, you were proud of it, maybe you won an award, maybe you became part of an exhibition you never thought you could have, maybe you did a really good piece of work, that had more technical time that you put into it than anything you've ever posted. But yet the feedback is dead. You will move on and you will do other things in your life. And sometimes you won't even recognize how deeply that bothered you. Because again, there's too much stuff coming in and out for us to filter that sometimes we don't even think about that. So it's good when you are posting to think about how Social media is affecting you emotionally. It is not unreasonable to post something, get no response, and feel really bummed about it. And it is also common to get minimal response and feel like a huge dopamine rush, like, oh my goodness, that comment felt so good that you want more, which will then make you want to post more on social media. But then when you get the negative response, meaning dead air, nothing, then you want to do it even more because you're dopamine seeking. You're trying to get that original feeling back. It is a cycle of actually addiction. Although addiction is a very wide and broad spectrum of things that we can look at from extreme damaging things such as drug addiction, all the way over to gambling addiction, But artists and average people on social media don't actually recognize that some of their behaviors are actually addictive. If you post something on social media, you get a favorable response, and then you post something again and you don't, and you continually want to post hoping to get that positive response, you're actually in a negative dopamine cycle. You're actually in an addictive cycle. Also, trying to figure out social media, trying to figure it out. We tell this to a lot of artists and clients that we work with, that there isn't actually a formula. And anybody online that is selling you some type of formula on how to do it are just profiting off of selling you this idea, which most people don't recognize is a cycle. It is just a desire to be seen and heard. And it just kind of makes sense in your head. Like, yeah, why would I not be seeking out some type of likes or support or sales on my work? Why would I not? And it's okay to want to seek that. But realizing that when you don't get that positive response, it is not a negative thing. And when you do get a positive response, it's not actually the most favorable thing either. It really should be looked at as more neutral. It will be what it will be. Because if you're always looking at it as ups and downs, oh my goodness, I got a bunch of likes and support, yay me, then the downs are going to feel more down. And then when you're down and then you get a favorable response, you're going to feel really up. And that is going to create this up and down, really negative dopamine cycle for you. So I always encourage artists to look at social media as a flatline. There's no good time a day to post. There's no need to do anything and everything perfectly. There's nothing wrong with a post if it gets no support. And just because a post gets amazing support doesn't mean it was any better than anybody else's. And if you can look at everything just kind of neutral, it is what it is. I will post when I want to. I will accept the support if I get it. If I don't get it, it's not a reflection of myself. it has really created a more balanced look at social media. We're putting our soul out there. We're putting so much of our being out there. It's hard not to look at the responses as a reflection of who we are. And also, it's hard not to take that in as our identity. Just because an artist doesn't have likes and just because an artist doesn't have a following doesn't mean they're not amazing. There is no formula, there's no rhyme or reason, and social media should not be any type of measure of your worth and who you are as an artist. I hope this episode was helpful and I look forward to seeing you guys again soon.