I blame cruddy mobile phone keyboards. Much harder to type responses.

Yeah, I do find I am less likely to type extensively on a cramped phone.

I want some sort of glove that makes typing as easy and instinctive for a phone as a keyboard: I barely have to think when typing properly - it's pretty much as easy as talking.

a lot of people been moving over to twitter these days for social media ive noticed. fa is like, you just post your art here

Yeah. I can see how it enables conversation. The notifications of what other people are interacting with instead of just posting. I've tried Twitter in the past and enjoyed it, but also feel like it becomes a time sink if you don't limit yourself. I also have a bad habit of wanting to read every tweet I missed, which becomes impossible after you follow enough people.

Thanks for responding Vinny. :3

I still get the comments here, and much more exposure to reactions to my work. Granted its getting to feel like my work is pretty "retro" so maybe its just that my pool of watchers are part of the netiquette generation that likes to engage online past favorites/likes.

Maybe people are just forced to cross post everywhere, and then to save time do not bother to even put a blurb. I generally do not follow people that post that way out of principle. Salty I guess but it usually is outside illustrators trolling for art mill cash.

Yeah, cross-posting can be a really tedious time-sink. xD Getting faves is great but when facebook turned everything into Likes, bleh. :/

I honestly think people have just been talking less in general online. I blame Facebook personally; why actually bother to type anything when you can just hit a like button... it's the same thing, right? And then other sites copy Facebook since it's so popular, so the bad habits of there spill over...

Same with Youtube. My husband has a youtube channel, and he's lucky if he gets one comment every 3-4 videos. It seems to be a 'consume and pass through' mentality versus an 'engage' anymore.

Of course, then there's introverts like me who go "Ooh, that artwork is cool" or "Oh, they make a good point" but don't say anything for fear of sounding stupid. I've been trying to get myself to leave comments more often. Even if I feel they're inane, I tell myself "I'd want a comment like this, I should give one."

Comment! Make all your comments! I always had troubles commenting growing up, especially if I wanted to say something someone already said. Unless something really compelled me.

I agree about the facebook likes. I also think the sheer amount of content generated makes it harder to keep up, harder to take time to comment, harder to say anything or be heard. For that, I started really narrowing down who I follow. I also think it is cause to focus on producing quality over quantity work. If you want likes, produce gratuitous quantities of click-fodder. If you want engagement, focus on quality that compels viewer commentary.

Social media and over-saturation of content happened. Fuck writing when you can smash that like button and move on to the next thing.

Yeah. :/ I am thinking the way around that is to produce compelling, quality work. Something that is more than pretty. Something that people have something to say about. Maybe that's why people spray-paint toilets gold and call it art. Simply to get a response from people who've seen too many Greco-Roman sculptures to the point of boredom. Even if they wouldn't think it is art, they'd probably have something to say about it being called art.

Words just don't seem to come as readily to people anymore. I try to still engage wherever I can but because of the constant anxiety and energy draining feelings that social media like Twitter have created for people like me and others, it gets so exhausting and I have to step away from the social engagement thing much more than I used to when I was on here 10+ years ago. Like what people said above me, it's mostly about media consumption and less interaction anymore. I'd kill for regular insightful comments or friendly banter that seemed to come so easily years ago though, and I wish I could do the same for others more like I was able to.

It is hard to keep-up for sure. The only thing I can think is to be more selective. Choose how much time to spend browsing vs. commenting. If you can't get to everyone, that's ok. You're not obligated to see every post. But maybe the people who's galleries you actively seek-out to browse, make a point to engage with them, since they apparently have something you're drawn to.

If you wish how we engage would change, then keep doing what you can to be that change. I say this as much to myself. :3

Thanks for commenting. ;3

(delayed reply because holidays and New Years was interesting) Oh I absolutely agree with everything you say, I've been pretty good about it though I admit I've been falling down on that in 2019, gotta get that good habit running again. Selectively doing it here and there as you suggest is a good way to do it too!

And thank you for making a thoughtful journal and also taking the time to reply, even if my reply back was belated haha.

No worries. I have a hard time keeping up with comments. It seems a universal trend, especially with so many people to talk to these days. But I feel encouraged when people take time to reply to my journals. Nothing quite as lonely as sharing your thoughts with a big loud internet only to get digital crickets chirping. xD

Welcome to 2020!