Another thing I would like to talk about is a conversation I recently had with a colleague.
There are 2 groups of creative people. Those who want to show their work to the world, and the others who don't feel the need to.
The first group does it because they enjoy appreciation, feedback or interation, or they have an unstoppable urge to share it.
Quoting Christopher McCandless: “Happiness is only real, when shared.”
The second group never shows or bring out their work out. For some reason they don't feel the need to, or are happy with themselves as is.
I am -alas- in the first group, and I know a bunch of people from the second group and I try to understand them. Maybe you also know some, observed them and tried figuring out the why's and how's....
In the first group, it is true that you get a dopamine shot every time you get applause or feedback or like.
That makes you want to show off with something again and again. Not only because you made a new series of art, or not because you're the narcissist in need for attention, but because the Social Media apps are made to get you addicted to dopamine.
Dopamine not only ensures that there are gambling/drug/sex/shopping addicts and such, but also that you become addicted to habits that you never before saw as harmful, or saw as normal everyday behavior.
Our brains become wired to always want to get feedback/interaction/likes and therefore have an urge to want to create content and put it online.
There are already several books about this, which I would like to read when I have more time.
The second group somehow does not need that.
I know a couple of wonderful musicians who play daily in their room, but never felt the need to register or record it, or put it online somewhere, or play for an audience in a live setting. No, they're happy just to play for their own.
I know some sports people who just run already all their lives, for themselves and their health, and don't tell others. And then there are the Strava-people who need to show off their stats and tell everyone each week how much they ran, just to tell how good they are. (That's the same group 2 vs group 1.)
Imagine that The Beatles or The Rolling Stones had a mindset like people from the second group, and they only played for theirselves in their rehearsal space and never recorded anything and never played it outside their rehearsal space, for an audience.
Nobody would ever know what they made. Nobody would ever get inspired by them.
Why do some artists come out of their personal space and show it to the outside world? Because they need a podium? Because they need attention? Because they enjoy someone else enjoys? Because other reasons?
I'm currently doing a sort of digital detox this month, with apps like Instagram. An app I'm using for 10 years now, very continuously. I sometimes took a detox break before (on holidays), but this time it's different, for other reasons, and I'm getting more philosophical about it. My brains also tells me I'm a bit addicted, yes, there there, I admit.
I was commuting to work this week and saw a wonderful sunrise. My habit is to get my phone and instantly capture the moment.
But now I thought... well... why would I take this picture if I'm not going to share it with anyone? Or should I wait until next month and post it after my detox? That's ridiculous.
So why would I take a picture... (ok yes I could show it at work to my coworkers, or at home to my family), but I'm not planning to spread it on socials.
It is like a tree that falls down in a forest and there's no one to hear it... ok there's the sound, but sames goes for: there's this picture, and you don't have the audience to see it.
And as the OP's topic goes: why no one cares about your photography: Why would I capture that sunrise, to show it to people who don't care? Because as explained in the video in the first post: not much people care.
It's a very existential question to me.
Why would we do what we do.
I finally didn't take that picture. I also thought: what's the reason why I was here? To not take that picture?
After my detox I'd love to become more like the ones in the second group, enjoying myself, the process of creating... authenticity... but at the end I'd sit there with my creations... and if I put it online to show, it feels like I'm the attention whore just doing that for likes?