Is social media the knife or the scalpel? As with most things in life, it’s not so much about what it is but rather how we use it. Social media is a tool that allows us to see the world through different eyes. It’s beautiful and it’s chaotic. Honest and a lie. The whole experience of various platforms, from niché blogs on 17th century poets, to travel visuals that make us feel admittedly poor but wanderlust on Instagram, is different for everyone.
With that being said, there are however some images where we can all see our experience in one way or another. Here are 10 artworks that captivate the social media experience.
1. Rubriks Cube life
We curate the patterns that people see our lives in, but life is actually wonderfully mismatched and that doesn’t always fit onto a grid.
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
2. Being original matters
We sometimes are afraid to share our own work because we’re afraid of whether people will like it or not. It’s only when someone else ‘shares’ that and we see our work is receiving validation that we sometimes feel it’s okay to spread our own wings. Validation shouldn’t stop us, yet sometimes it does. As the artist expresses, people do steal for fame. Let your own shine through.
View this post on Instagram
3. Goddess of love, or likes
I think we equate real love with the likes we receive, and it’s problematic because it gives us a false sense of who actually cares about us and who does not.
View this post on Instagram
4.Cupid, Psyche and Instagram
I’ve actually seen couples hugging each other, where one is checking their phone in the process. It made me sad because we are sometimes so focused on that little screen that we forget the life, the love, right in front of us.
View this post on Instagram
5. Love During the Pandemic, guided by social media
We were only connected by social media during the more intense periods of the pandemic (which, for South Africa, has resurfaced). @karmanverdi’s work was compiled in this post, and it really brought to light how social media did offer a substitute for connection. However, whether that connection has actually surpassed actual connection is also food for thought.
View this post on Instagram
6. Online isn’t real
The image speaks for itself. We know there’s a bite in the apple of our booty’s but we post the good parts anyway. It’s not wrong, it’s just an aspect. The trouble is confusing that aspect with reality.
View this post on Instagram
7.Hungry for likes
Again, I think this visual speaks for itself.
View this post on Instagram
8. Overwhelmed.
I like @theartidote’s caption for the visual. This work is striking because it always feels like when you’re not on your phone, the pings of your social media apps seem to get louder and busier. It’s okay to take a break, and more than that, it’s necessary.
View this post on Instagram
9.The Space Between Life.
‘How am I going to paint my world today?’ It can be beautiful and it can also be stressful. It really does feel like we are all artists constantly portraying the picture of our lives in one way or another.
View this post on Instagram
10.Sunny-side social.
That’s not the work’s actual name but I mean, it fits. It’s quite cute at first, but when I looked more deeply I thought about how most of us don’t start our days with nourishment, but rather check our phones. From work to friends and all that social media landscape encompasses, we do forget ourselves.
View this post on Instagram
11. Carrying validation
Again, we carry validation so carefully as if it were a child. It looks beautiful, but when does the love start coming from within?
View this post on Instagram
Picture: Artwork by Guilla Rosa