im so frustrated with social media nowadays... i dont know if its just because i dont know how to use it properly or because of genuine algorithm issues on the platform but like.... HOW does ANYONE find ANYONE on there???

like okay yes, there’s tags on instagram- i GET that- and it does seem that people use those tags to find new art because thats how im pretty sure ive gained the followers i do have (since its not like there’s a reblog function on there or anything where someone can expose an artist to their followers and thus increase their visibility)... but they also just instituted a new algorithm that basically mutes anyone who doesnt post/respond regularly (which can apparently be as little time as a week/few days without posting), so that’s a no go for anyone who doesn’t already have a large following

then twitter?? is just???? a void????? like i literally have NO idea how anyone finds anyone on there or how you’re supposed to grow your audience or even find people that you know from other social media??  i recently started using hashtags on there for my art (something that im still very wary of because NOT A SINGLE ARTIST I FOLLOW uses them so idk what the commonly used or appropriate ones are??? or if its even considered appropriate to put them on your art post?? like i said- not a single of the nearly 100 artists i follow uses them so im just like lol guess ill die) and yet i still feel like im just yelling into a void (with about the same reaction as you would expect from that action)

meanwhile, tumblr is the only place ive ever been able to build any sort of following and find friends/people i like and content i want, yet aside from its slow decline over the past couple years, im now hearing from artists that they’re barely getting any notes or interactions, even when they have 67k followers or some shit, so they’re all leaving for other social medias

which again returns me to my previous point of HOW are the other ones any better??? how did you amass 112k followers on twitter or w/e and 98k on instagram (if not just migration from an already established platform? which is literally my only working theory)? at least on here i can throw shit in a tag and i know ppl will see it- or i have ppl who consistently reblog my shit so i know that will introduce it to a new audience- how does that work on twitter/instagram???

ive yet to be introduced to A SINGLE NEW ARTIST on those platforms, which tells me that its not just my work that isn’t being spread, but that it’s just how the platform functions (e.g. you can show things to your followers, but their followers will rarely if ever see it, and there’s very few options for otherwise increasing your visibility), which im sure is fine and all if you already have a couple hundred or thousand followers under your belt, but for people starting absolutely fresh? what chance do they have? how do they reach the people they want to reach?

forget art- how do you find FRIENDS on there? how does ANYONE connect with other like-minded people or with those who share their interests? i just dont understand how anyone feels like these sites are anything other than just shouting into the void and ~hoping~ that the void is already occupied and listening...

(and please know this has nothing to do with my content- i understand that i dont put out anything worth paying attention to, so its not like im bitter i dont have followers or anything. it just feels like im missing out on some core knowledge that everyone else knows (which coincidentally is the story of my life) and that it’s going to fuck me over big time when i actually do try to gain an audience)