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Ceramics & Social Media (Part 1): What is Growth Anyway?

Hi, it's Chai.


Today, I want to talk about ceramics. and social media. I had not been active on social media in a while by the time I started an Instagram account for my ceramics in 2020. In fact, that was my first ever Instagram account, and it remained private for a while before I made it public to connect more with other potters.

It was a cultural shock. Perhaps it's the hyper-individualism of North America, perhaps it's a generational difference between how Gen Z and Millennials navigate social media. It could also be a difference in personality, upbringing and values. Most likely, it was a combination of all of the above. Whatever the case, I was taken aback by the how ubiquitous it was to make the personal not just public, but performative.


Left and right, beginning potters unabashedly started Instagram accounts dedicated to their "pottery journey". Starting with their very first pottery lesson, every single failure and success had to be broadcasted and validated by an audience. "Stay tuned to see this pot finished!" "I've hit X followers, thank you so much!" "What should I make next? Tell me in the comments!" - they beckon loud and proud to the invisible masses. They optimize to grow their audience, sharing their pottery account on their personal one, tagging their studios or more established potters in hopes to have their posts and reels re-shared to a larger audience, using product placement, following trends and replicating reels from more popular accounts, incorporating non-pottery related elements to appeal to those not interested in pottery, improving their SEO by synching up accounts on multiple social media platforms and websites...those are but a few of the strategies that can be used to "grow your social media audience".


How social media contaminated ceramics for me

I was (pun-intended) thrown. "Where does this self-confidence come from?" I marveled. My upbringing emphasized humility, self-awareness and continuous learning and bettering yourself. It's part of my name, and part of the name of Chai Creations. The way I was brought up, self-promotion is only needed if your work cannot speak for itself. Now, anybody who works in marketing, or who has tried to climb the corporate ladder, will tell you that that is not true. Your ability to "sell yourself" is as important, if not more, than your actual skill and expertise. That sales-person-ship, more so than crafts-person-ship, is key to "grow" on social media. Oh, and lack of self-consciousness helps a lot too.


I felt pressure to jump onto this bandwagon or keep up with the never-ending popularity contest on social media at first. The thing with likes and followers is, it is quantifiable. Once you put a number on something, your brain goes "oooh I need to make this number increase, more is better". At first, making reels and taking photos of my pieces was fun, it gave me a new lens to see my pieces through, and helped me hone in on details I did not otherwise notice before, like the sheen or nuances in a glaze, or tiny flaws to be refined next time. Throw in likes, views, shares and comments, and then all of a sudden comes the roller coaster of the dopamine hit of a popular reel, and the disappointment of ones that fall flat.


Plus, quantification also begets comparison. I would be lying to say I did not compare myself against other green potters, and wonder about the difference in response on social media. Yet, my attempts to "serenade the scrollers" felt forced and I almost always cringed and hit delete rather than presenting myself in a way that did not feel authentic. At the time, it seemed like I had to choose between (a) being true to myself, versus (b) my art being seen and recognized. Considering that art is essentially self-expression, that is one hell of a paradox to be in.


Back to the wedging table: Resetting intentions for making

Then, one day, several episodes of The Maker's Playbook gave me a wake-up call. Instead of "how do I grow on social media?" I really needed to take a step back and ask - "WHY do I have to grow on social media?". This prompted series of questions and self-reflection that helped me adjust my mindset with my ceramics being on social media.


What I am trying to get out of ceramics?

At an artist talk I attended earlier this year, there was one astute observation that got knowing chuckles from the audience. Exact wording aside, it was something in the spirit of - Ceramics is one of the few art forms where people easily try to "make it work for them", before they've put enough work into it. People who are learning to paint don't usually start selling their work within a few months, but that is quite common in pottery. In fact, I was pretty surprised to find via a poll by @limyanskystudios (another lovely resource!) that most potters began selling their work within a year of learning. What I took from that artist's words though, was a more general reflection on extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation, with extrinsic motivation including not just monetary gain, but attention, and the curation of a public image.


Now is when I take off my potter's apron and put on my school psychologist's... (hat? clipboard? what item is essential for my work? probably hand sanitizer LOL). Anyway, there is ample research on how extrinsic and intrinsic motivation impact behavior. This seminal experiment by Lepper, Greene & Nisbett (1973) even incorporates art - preschool children drawing with Magic Markers! In this experiment, preschool children who enjoyed drawing were either (a) left to create their art, (b) told that they could draw in exchange for an "award" (a certificate with their name on it), or (c) surprised with an award after they finished drawing. The researchers then monitored any changes in the children's expressed interest in drawing, as well as the actual time they spent drawing after this manipulation. Compared with children who were simply allowed to draw without any consequences, the children who were told they could draw in exchange for an award drew significantly less afterwards, and those who got surprised by the award after drawing drew slightly more. If you don't want to read an academic journal article, but would still like more information in a digestible format, check out this blog entry by PsyBlog or this article from Stanford's The Bing Times.


Reflecting on my own experience, the approval I received from likes and follows in my early days on social media was an unexpected extrinsic reward. It did not necessarily make me do more ceramics, because I was already spending so much time on it, but it did make me want to share my work more on social media. On the other hand, after my "tolerance" for likes and follows was built up, and they became an expected extrinsic reward, it started to tarnish what otherwise began as a purely intrinsically motivating pass-time. While my brain is contently purring "I'm doing it for me! I'm doing it because it makes me feel present! I'm doing it because it feels good to get better and better at making things with my hands!", social media jumped in and obnoxiously yells "NO YOU AREN'T, YOU'RE DOING IT FOR THE LIKES, THE ATTENTION, THE DOPAMINE RUSH FROM 5 SECONDS OF FAME" and confuses the "flux" out of me. This phenomenon something that was originally intrinsically valued becoming less motivating when an unnecessary extrinsic reward is offered is called the Overjustification Effect.


Take a "scroll" through social media (ok, I will stop with my puns), and you will see that it can color not just why hobby potters make, but what hobby potters make as well. Are other hobby potters getting likes for making a specific form, or formatting the reel a certain way? Let me do that too. Are other hobby potters talking about certain things in their posts (e.g. setting goals, reflecting on how ceramics makes them more accepting of imperfections)? Let me do that too. Actually, what do people scrolling through Instagram like to see hobby potters do? Let me ask them directly and just do that.


**Notice here that I've explicitly mentioned hobby potters, because they are the ones doing it "just because". If you are making ceramics for a living, of course of course you should consider whether you "get something else" out of it, it's your livelihood and career! **


So what's my answer to this question? What AM I trying to get out of ceramics? Pots, just pots, I swear...ok fine mostly just enjoyment of the art form itself, with a dash of recognition too - Who am I kidding? I'm a social animal like any other human being. However, I want to stay true to making ceramics out of intrinsic motivation, or in inherent joy of shaping clay into anything I can imagine, as much possible. I want to respond to "Would you still do this if there were no likes and followers, or art markets or commissions?" with a resounding YES, but also be able to enjoy some recognition of others as an "unexpected reward".


That leads to my second question...


Who is "liking" stuff on social media and why? (Or, whose recognition do I want?)


In psychology and other related fields, there is a huge emphasis on empirical research. Statistics, metrics etc- we want to be able to measure things. Sometimes, what can be expressed in numbers is (mistakenly) regarded as more valuable and more valid what can only be felt, not counted. I, too, fell prey to this bias in evaluating my own work through the lens of social media.


Are the number of likes or followers proxy for the quality of the pieces? Does the more popular potter actually make better work? My observation is, no. Some ceramicists that I really respect and admire aren't even active on social media. I once asked a teacher how they promoted their work on social media and they raised an eyebrow and said "Uh, I'm too busy living my life to show it on social media, and if I had more time, I'd much rather make more beautiful pieces than make beautiful videos of myself making pieces". BOOM. I have nothing to add, your honor.


Of course, that is an established artist who teaches classes, sells both directly to her customers as well as wholesale, and has exhibitions in galleries. What about actual hobby potters, my peers? Does popularity then correlate with competence as a hobby potter? The truth is, I really don't know. Because you can't really tell if pots are bottom-heavy, the smoothness of finish, the evenness of the walls, if the handles are ergonomic, if it will withstand everyday use without chipping....you can't examine most markers of crafts-person-ship in a 10 second reel that flashes photos of pots before your eyes in sync with a catchy beat. It follows that the people liking those reels aren't necessarily judging the quality of the piece, and they might not even be familiar enough with ceramics to judge. They might being liking the way the piece looks, or how entertaining the reel was, or even the person who made it...or any number of things unrelated to the actual quality of the piece. On the other hand, ceramicists and instructors who witness the hours of work you put into it, and not just the 30-second highlight reel, are probably better sources of feedback for the actual quality of my makes.


That's not to say likes and followers on social media don't reflect any effort or competence at all - they are, as discussed, fruits of strategic and persistent sales-person-ship. Some people's entire careers are about growing on social media or curating public images, so there's obviously great expertise and skill in doing that well. However, that's not pottery, that's (self-)promotion. That's not why I play with clay, nor what I want to do with my finite time and effort.


Measuring Growth in Pottery, Not Promotion


Realizing that my brain conflates likes and followers to my competence as an aspiring ceramicist was crucial to repairing the relationship between my ceramics practice and social media. I'm not blaming social media - the fault is mine. I misused social media to measure my crafts-person-ship, when it's a measure of sales-person-ship and curation. I have since intentionally replaced likes and followers with other, more valid and reliable measures of my skill such as:


That said, social media can be fun. It can even be conducive to my growth as a potter and a person. Next time, I will write about how I intend to use social media a bit more intentionally and mindfully, so that it adds to, rather than takes away from, my pottery practice.


Until then, keep Chai-ing:)






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