Dude, I feel ya on a lot of that. 2025 for me was honestly a bit of a mixed bag. There were a few ups, mainly a family trip to Colorado and South Dakota that I honestly kinda enjoyed. Also worked up the nerve to finally delete my Snapchat account, but that’s not particularly noteworthy for other people. But there were also a lot of downs for me. The first of which was an incident on Side7 where a majority of my art(as well as many of other peoples’ art on there) was scraped by a user who then fed the data to various AI “art” training algorithm platforms. Even though some action was taken to lessen the damage and to prevent a repeat, that moment really shook me and I practically went into a self-imposed exile from the site. I just no longer feel safe posting my art anywhere on the internet until I can find at least some ways to prevent it from being exploited by AI again. Then my grandmother passed away this July, after dealing health issues that have been plaguing her since the past year or two. I had a feeling it was going to happen eventually, considering her incredibly unhealthy diet, but I was still devastated when it did. It also didn’t help that despite our loss, despite the condolences we were given, there are members in my extended family who continue to be selfish, insensitive, or just uncaring enough to even bother. In essence, I think I may have become a bit more pessimistic, cynical, and somewhat more paranoid this year compared to years before. I’ve honestly never have been at such an emotionally low point in my life. I’m honestly ready to put 2025 behind me, but I’m not exactly looking forward to what awaits us in 2026.

So yeah, I truly can relate on some level. I honestly think it may be best to put Twitter/X behind you and delete your account if you are considering it. I’m sure there is plenty of other, more artist-friendly and community-based alternatives out there, anyways. The whole numbers and ratings thing can really do damage to the soul, from what I learned lately.

As for the kind of content you’ve made and posted, I will say you definitely made way more progress than I have.🥲 Even if it came at the cost of less comic pages than usual, I feel like you’ve shown slight improvements with your style and a willingness to experiment with styles and concepts. Hopefully you’ll be able to carry on the comics and independent art pieces with the same level of skill and passion you acquired. I hope to get back into making and posting art again myself someday(once I figure which anti-AI programs/methods to use that will work for both my iPad and my sanity).

I wish you the best of luck with your efforts into your future plans! Regardless of which path you go on, I’m still going to stick around and check your stuff out for years to come! ;)

IDK if there's going to be any way to fully avoid having our art stolen by AI either directly or by people feeding our content into it manually. Even if an artist only art site popped up it would still easily be scraped. Twitter/X though just continues to rub me the wrong way. The reach there is second to none compared to my other platforms but the policies of the site are just a big middle finger to artists every single update. The "viral posts" of course are ones i never wanted to actually go anywhere while art i wish would take off always fell flat. Twitter basically wanted me to be an "internet complainer" rather than an artist based on the attention things got and it's all too easy to fall into that hole since art quality could be quite low and hastily made and people eat it right up.

Plenty of family drama on my end too, some deaths, sibling squabbles (in my mom's family), and just me feeling a bit left out and behind (given my singleness). There was that Online Girl but all she wanted was to "fool around" in chat, then there was another who only wanted the same thing but was more direct so i instantly recognized what was going on and that died. I was made in contact with an actual physical girl in my region but a few texts back and forth quickly revealed we weren't going to be compatible... So the sorta hunt sorta give up continues...

I'm just going to keep trying to create art and comic pages for the enjoyment of it

Perhaps not. That’s one thing that both rocks and sucks about technology. It’s constantly evolving and changing. I think what truly matters is how we adapt to it. I’ve been looking at programs that are supposed to add changes to your art that are subtle to human eye, but really mess up the data in a way that’s supposed to screw up the process for the AI. That or they add certain kinds of watermarks or “shield layers” to your art pieces. IDK, I’m still looking into it. I’d rather have some protection and deterrents for my stuff than none at all.

Twitter/X certainly has a large reach and user page, but the way it’s set up is flawed at best and completely screwed up at worst. The things people look at and search for on there and other(major) social media sites is all based on soulless algorithms. The posts of yours that “went viral” likely only done so because they “fit” into the toxic parts of internet and meme culture that many people have been conditioned to consume, and therefore said algorithms “recommend” them. I noticed a similar phenomenon with sites like YouTube, where independent animators with decent/good animation skills tend to get overshadowed by people who put minimal effort into their (usually brainrotting) content, who often get more views, subscribers, and revenue than those who actually work with skill and passion. That, plus the site’s double standards on censorship when it comes to videos and ads and other problems has lead many animators to ultimately leave it altogether. Trust me, you are not the only one on this boat.

The part with the sibling squabbles on the maternal side sounds way too familiar. I’d say 2-3/4 of my aunts and grandmother on that side are nasty in their own way and have toxic personality traits that make me want to avoid them nowadays if I can help it. My mother has some of those “quirks” too, but she’s not nearly as bad as them. I also have an uncle on my dad’s side who is just exceptionally selfish and very lazy. I’m sure he rarely leaves his house when he’s not at work. Those are basically the general “highlights” of the drama in my family. I would go on, but I’m pretty sure you don’t want to hear go on a rant.

I’ve never got into online dating, or chatting with any potential partners on the internet. Mainly for personal security reasons, but also somewhat because I thought about the reasons that you stated. I personally think that I need to make a personal and truly genuine connection with them before even considering anything else. I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you this year. Hopefully, someday it might. Only time will tell.

Honestly, I feel like that’s kinda the way it should be. Again, I wish you the best of luck!