(Ah, finished typing again before I saw this!)
Parasocial relationships are definitely their own can of worms! I've seen it wreak some STRANGE havoc. It's a subject I have conflicting feelings about that that I'd have to brainstorm how to phrase - but I'm glad people are becoming more aware of it.

I do get a glimpse of that older style of fun and hype when Art Fight comes around though! And IRL when I went to cons pre-covid. I've been a little scared to check them out since though.

I think a lot of it comes down to places that encourage more one-on-one/small group discussion.

Oooh I imagine! I caught the tail end of Deviantart's popularity but that's about it. Insta was my first "serious" profile and Reels have just morphed it into Tiktok (or I imagine, I used TT for maybe a week?). I've just been floating around looking for a way to post art that feels fun since then.

Granted, my experiences aren't universal. People on here certainly talk like they've had better luck making connections through comments/threads.

On the topic of bothering people, sorry for putting an essay in your guys' replies aha!

(At least on Instagram and, I'd assume, TikTok.)

The only (VERY niche!) places I've been able to have real conversations online over the past few years have been older MMOs/their fanmade reboots, even on Discord it can feel like the loudest people just talk past everyone in larger servers.

As an older Gen Z - yeahhhh I do kinda feel like I'm bothering people if I talk TO them as a stranger. And it feels like putting a spotlight on yourself if someone with A Platform responds, which is kinda mortifying.

Posting publicly is LOUD! It feels like it has to be a statement For Everyone.

Adding onto watercolors, you can also get a watercolor pen (a brush pen you can fill with water) and a cheap watercolor palette and it'll be much easier to control than standard watercolors!

OH WAIT I SHOULD SPECIFY. by "the election" I mean the 2020 election. Instagram hashtags have been in the trenches for a minuteeee

(the tag thing even sucks for niche topics and fandoms - you'd think less posts overall = easier to be a top post but no! the top posts will stay the same forever and it'll all just be Pinterest reposts and people who drew a thing once 7 years ago and have a large following)

It's been unusable ever since they nuked tags for the election - they never restored full functionality and you can only see the top posts anywhere, be it individual hashtags or the explore page. There's no way to search for small artists anymore 😔

This happens soooo much when I'm looking for new music as well, the album/cover art will be completely AI generated and I'll just keep scrolling regardless of how good the song may be.

I promise, a stock image with some text slapped on will be infinitely less of an instant deterrent.

YAYYY the creature of all time!! I love how you made tynamo look more like the big ol' lamprey it turns into

I don't really have a good conclusion to this, and I'm screaming into a void of, like, 5 people, but I guess I wanted to let anyone who's enjoyed my art know where I'm at. Thank you.

-but I've felt... I don't know, guilty? Doing that in public, when others don't have a choice but to scream or hide.

I've been trying to rethink how I want to approach the Internet as a whole, and I'm still not sure what I'm going to do. I know I don't want the answer to be disappearing though.

I want to keep making art and I want to be a bright spot for at least a few people, I try not to vent or doompost since that's literally all my feed has been for months. I keep it to myself.

I need to make art and I have to keep going because it'll feel so good to outlive these bumbling fuckheads-

-and learn about a different one. It's been a lot. It feels like there's nothing I can do - and I haven't wanted to take up space online when there's so many others out there who need the attention more right now, when I'm doing well all things considered.

PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS!
SPREAD THE WORD!
2/2