In 2014, research showed that over 2 billion people have used the Internet across the world. Of those people, nearly 70% have signed into a social networking site in the past year to connect with others, curate their personal images, and share information with people across the virtual universe.
Given these facts, social media has been a growing medium in visual art over the past 20 years. In the 1990s, artists who couldn't find commercial success began sharing their work on early webpages. In 2002, Ben Rubin and Mark Hansen developed "Listening Post," an installation that pulled real-time text from chat rooms, bulletin boards, and online forums, and displayed them across hundreds of small screens.
Today, artists regularly tap social media as a way to create a shared experience, crowdsource participants and ideas, and explore the dynamics between the virtual and IRL. While you ponder just what you could create in the approximately 3-4 hours you'll spend using social media today, check out these 15 Works of Art Inspired by Social Media.