Working freelance is precarious but also a bit liberating. When working inhouse I was often a bundle of anxiety, worried about which stakeholder was going to take issue with whatever was being posted that day. It didn’t help that social media was always the handmaiden for other departments, rarely standing on its own two feet and dictating the terms.

Now, after juggling multiple accounts and working with a load of different people and types of places, I’ve learned what’s worth giving a shit about and not giving a shit about. People generally want to do a good job, but they can’t help you if you don’t bring them in. That thing you’re fretting about turns out to not be a problem by just talking to other people and figuring it out. If you’re constantly worried about doing the wrong thing, then you build your own psychological safety by being as open with your work, your worries and your opinions as possible.

Of course that doesn’t work if your colleagues are wankers.

Anyway, speaking of anxiety - Ash Mann is doing a survey on invisible labour in digital work that’s worth filling out (takes about ten minutes). Too many people think content is a piece of piss, not recognising the co-ordination, the creation, the editing, the googling, the review process, the reporting, the relationship management, the wracking of brains to come up with just the right copy. So pour all that frustration into Ash’s survey please.

Content of this week

• I miss 2016 social media.

• The Postal Museum smashed through 250K Likes on TikTok last week, and then they posted this video and they put on another 140K in a single week. Just post your little trains.

• This is such a good take on recruitment by the National Theatre. Not just a picture saying ‘we’re hiring’ but ‘this is what this job looks like, this is who you’ll be working with, and this is how cool it is’.

• I’ve read Goodnight Moon so many times, so this post gave me a bit of PTSD.

• The RSPB social media person has unmasked themselves because they’ve got a new job, another log in the annals of social media managers being so good at their jobs that when they leave it will probably kill the account.

• This isn’t to do with arts and culture, but in its own way is a piece of art.

The bullet point bit

• I haven’t been keeping up with all of Photoshop’s changes since I realised Canva can usually do the exact same things with one click instead of twenty, but this rotation thing is pretty cool.

• The UK government is now backtracking on plans to let AI companies rip copyrighted works without consequence.

• Meta and TikTok allow harmful content because it improves their stocks. I wish I could just make content about arts and culture without contributing to the collapse of society.

Personal stuff I do for me and you can just skip this if you like

🎮📖 what I’m consuming as a consumer

I watched the Manosphere documentary and it made me sad. Social media has basically created 4chan on steroids.

🐕 Keith

Here he is