The boom of social media has resulted in a cultural shift in both what is considered entertainment and who are the ones that provide it.
Recently, the amount of content there is out there and, specifically, the diversity of it is becoming more and more surprising. It’s not only brands or influencers crowding the web with reels and TikToks anymore. It seems nowadays everyone wants their own community on social media, exploiting their own little niche of peculiar interests in front of an online audience, seeking profit, support, or simply exposure.
The insatiable need for more and more content has generated an opportunity for the consumer to become the creator. And with that has come an incursion of all types of atypical content into the mainstream platforms. Seth Godin was way ahead of his time when he anticipated this shift in his book, We Are All Weird. Eleven years ago, he predicted the change from a mass culture to a tribe culture. He explained how being “weird” or “different” would pay off (quite literally for a lot of creators) in the future market. Nowadays people can make videos dressed as japanese anime characters and make thousands of dollars promoting products. In the early stages of platforms like Facebook or Instagram, that was simply not the case.
We are witnessing the birth of very specific niches that even 5 years ago would’ve been impossible to predict. A few examples of this pop up in my explore page regularly. From the woman who blogs about her experiences as an American adjusting to Italy (@kacierose_ ), to the girl making short little skits about what it’s like living with 40+ allergies (@Shivaika). There’s no predicting what type of accounts will gain a huge audience on the internet anymore, and while they may not be relatable to all, these are people who have found their own space in the web, with communities of up to 300k followers. It appears that no matter how random or peculiar your content may seem, there’s always someone out there who’s interested in seeing it.
This translates to an infinity of options when choosing what you want to see. Which can be good or bad depending on how you look at it. On one hand, the immense number of choices means there’s a community for everyone, accompanied by a sense of belonging once you find others like you. It’s very hard to be a “freak” nowadays when there are thousands of people who you can connect with in an instant based on what you are into.
However, this massive influx of content raises an important question: Is a larger internet community really for the better? Or is it lowering the standards of both the audience and the creators? Of course, this question is subjective, we don’t all find the same things interesting or funny. However, I think we can all agree that some forms of content are more valuable or at the least more well-thought out than others. A girl by the name of @pinkydollrealb reacting to emojis while pretending to be a NPC (non-playable character), while popular among a certain crowd, is not exactly stimulating or a particularly rich form of content. And at the risk of sounding like a snob, it’s perhaps not necessary for the average consumer. Nevertheless, people consume it, like it, reproduce it, and therefore, there’s a place for it online.
Which brings us to another question. Does the audience actually enjoy this type of content or do we simply watch it because it’s there? Is there an intent in our social media consumption or do we scroll aimlessly for hours simply giving our oversaturated brains a break? It’s impossible to assert the answer, but I do think it’s important that we all take a minute to consider the question.
The average person spends from one and a half up to six hours daily on their phone depending on the region. That means a not insignificant amount of our time is spent absorbing whatever it is the algorithm chooses to show us. And it’s not always an organic experience, where the content that interests you just pops up on your screen. No, platforms such as Instagram or TikTok have a filter for all the different accounts and information they display for us, using their parameters to decide what THEY think we should be seeing on our screens. This creates a space where it can be difficult to be fulfilled by our online activity. So, while the amount of diversified content is not a bad thing in the sense that it provides a feeling of belonging for many people, it may also serve as an obstacle by keeping us from content that we might’ve found relevant or even inspiring.
Nevertheless, this doesn’t have to be the case if we don’t want it to, all we need to do is be a little more intentional and put more thought into our social media consumption. Seek out those creators who we think have something interesting or valuable to say instead of trying to see everything in our explore page. We can enjoy a healthy dose of cat memes and lighthearted reels while still finding ways to bring value to our scrolling.
