Two recent Guardian articles led me to write this post: Alex Macpherson's plea for musicians to lead a more active - and less internet addicted - lifestyle, and Tom Cox's personal essay on his past 12 months without Facebook. Both articles stake the same claim, more or less, that one's life can be more fruitful and less dreary if they turn off the damn screen every now and then. Macpherson urges bedroom producers to resist the pull of www.'s wormhole and enjoy a bit of sunshine to quell the influx of despondent, hazy, and downright emo electonica of the past four years. Cox describes all that he's achieved since locking himself out of social media, like write a book, see some ducks, discover vitamin C, etc. Both are admirable suggestions for new year resolutions, no?

(consider this post with a healthy dose of wax)

I am active on certain social media sites and enjoy spending my time engaged on such spaces, so you won't find me proselytizing an anti-social media lifestyle (though at this point everyone I speak to wishes they spent less time checking them). It has its ups and downs, like any method of time consumption. However, reading both articles back to back led me to consider another consequence of social media and its affect on artistic endeavors, specifically electronic music. A problem I have seen more and more of - as well as suffer myself almost every time - is the need to share a new track/demo/jam/loop as immediately and without hesitation as one shares a new thought/link/blogpost/gif.

We have grown accustomed to sharing our most fleeting thoughts with potentially billions of people, and that reach does little to dissuade us from posting. The same holds true for our creative output and that is not a good thing. Uploading more and more of your latest tunes will not get you "discovered" faster, nor booked for gigs, nor land that private jet. It only presents more opportunities for people to dislike your work and get sick of you. Creative work is inherently doomed because of its subjective and highly personal nature, leaving you with more chances to fail than succeed.

Will turning off social media help your creative output? Maybe. Will it make your music less gloom and doom? Can't say. But I do think the habit-forming consequence of 24/7 networking can weaken your judgement of what should - and should not - be shared. If you're skilled enough at finishing a tune, let someone else help determine whether or not it's worth a tweet.