Too much choice?

I'm a grumpy old man. I'll admit that. Except I'm not old. OK, so just grumpy! Anyway. Sometimes the internet feels too big. Too much out there. In the past, you had to use that funny thing called a phone (note the absence of the word 'mobile'), and when push came to shove, you had to go and meet somebody in person! Proofs had to be sent by post and things generally took a long time to happen. There's a whole generation growing up for whom the speed and accessibility of the internet is perfectly normal – and they look at their parents gone out when they tell them about the world before the internet and smartphones.

But I digress. Sometimes it just feels like there's so much – too much – to try and get involved in. Have a Facebook page, get a Twitter account, join forums, get a website, join DeviantArt, get a Flickr account – it's almost endless! And do we need all of it? And if you try and participate in all of it, do you simply end up doing a halfhearted job? With so many people doing the same thing at the same time, it makes you wonder how on earth and even if you're going to get noticed. Although in theory it's quite simple – so long as your work stands out – but it comes back to my previous point of feeling swamped by technology. Now there are websites where you can go and sketch online, you can paint by finger on your iPad or iPhone. Let's not forget there's those great things called "Pencils" though, which you use on that paper stuff!

Although I love technology and the convenience and speed it presents, not to mention the digital art medium (i wouldn't be the same without it!), I do sometimes miss the simplicity of days gone by - or lack of so many outlets, to put it a different way. Yet at the same time we're in an age where your work can reach other parts of the world within seconds and be seen by thousands of people who would previously never see what you're doing. It's a funny old time. I wonder where we're going.