Have Human Beings Become Too Dumb To Appreciate Art?

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I saw someone say we have become too dumb to appreciate art. What I know to be true is that in the age of social media, bullies have become oddly synonymous with doing business. They're everywhere—brazen, loud, and often hiding behind the veil of “just being honest.” And in the world of art? Oh, they’re flourishing.

Let me tell you about a "gentleman" I came across on Instagram, who has somehow appointed himself the high priest of artistic judgment. His entire account is dedicated to taking videos of other artists—real, breathing, trying-their-best human beings—superimposing his own smug face over their work, and then tearing them to pieces. Publicly. Gleefully. Viciously.

According to him, this isn’t art. That person? Not a real artist. That performance piece? Just someone making a spectacle of themselves. He goes so far as to say they're wasting their time, their money—and even our money, as if he’s the sole shareholder in creativity.

Here’s the twist: he calls himself an artist.

And I just… I can’t.

Because in all my years of making and sharing art, I’ve never once seen a real artist make a sport of publicly belittling others the way this man does. Critique is one thing—valuable, essential even—but bullying disguised as critique is just ego dressed up in acrylics.

What Is Art, Anyway?

The last I checked, art in all of its many forms—messy, loud, quiet, strange, refined—was subjective. Always has been. Always will be. That’s what makes it art and not a math test.

It’s the duty of the beholder to find the value. And no, not the monetary value. I’m talking about that invisible, heart-thumping kind: the value of something created by another human being that makes you feel something. Joy, discomfort, longing, confusion, nostalgia. That strange pause in your chest when you see a painting and don’t know why you want to cry. That’s the good stuff.

If you look at a piece and it doesn’t move you? That art simply isn’t for you. That doesn’t make it bad. It doesn’t make the artist a fraud. It doesn’t mean the internet should rally around to mock them in the comments.

Let’s be real: the woman who slides across a canvas in a bathing suit, smearing paint with her body? She’s no less an artist than the hyperrealist who spends 60 painstaking hours making their dog look like it’s about to bark off the page. Both are valid. Both are expressive. One might be asking questions about process, form, or performance. The other about skill, patience, and realism. And guess what? Neither is wrong.

The problem isn’t the art. The problem is the beholders—especially the ones who think art needs to be pretty, perfect, or profitable to be “worthy.”

We Forgot How to Feel Things Slowly

Here’s where it gets heavier.

In today’s world, most people experience creativity through a screen. And not just any screen—one that’s constantly refreshing, feeding you seven-second bursts of dopamine. You scroll, you like, you forget. Repeat.

There’s not a lot of room in that cycle for slow burns. For sitting with something. For letting it confuse you. Or haunt you. Or bore you for a minute before something clicks.

We are starving for real feeling, but we’ve trained ourselves to expect it fast, flashy, and frictionless. Art, especially the kind that takes time to unfold, doesn’t fit neatly into that mold. And as a result, we scroll right past it.

What Happened to Art Education?

It didn’t used to be this way.

Twenty years ago, art wasn’t something you had to stumble across on social media—it was taught. Valued. Protected. In public schools, art classes weren’t optional luxuries; they were part of a well-rounded education. Not just because we thought kids might become artists, but because we knew art made kids smarter.

Seriously—there’s science behind this. Research from Harvard’s Project Zero and the National Endowment for the Arts has consistently shown that learning art improves problem-solving, math comprehension, spatial reasoning, and critical thinking. Art doesn’t distract from science and math. It builds the brain to understand them better.

But when budget cuts come to town, guess which classes get tossed in the bin first?

Yep. Art. Music. Drama. Dance.

We cut the very things that help us feel, process, and make meaning of the world—and then we wonder why kids are disengaged, why attention spans are tanking, why empathy seems in short supply.

So, Are We Too Dumb for Art?

Not exactly. But we are out of practice.

Art asks for things we no longer give freely: time, attention, curiosity, vulnerability. Those are hard things in a culture that demands instant gratification and algorithmic approval. But that doesn’t mean we’re incapable. It just means we need to relearn how to look.

And maybe we need to relearn how to be kind. Especially in creative spaces.

Because at the end of the day, art isn’t just what’s on the canvas. It’s also the courage it took to put it there.

If you see a piece of art today—online, in person, in a messy living room—and it stirs something in you, say something kind. And if it doesn’t? Keep scrolling. The world doesn’t need another critic. It needs more creators.