“Life is not content, content is not life.”
As the creator economy continues to expand, the desire to create content and score the highest numbers can overtake our individuality, responsibility and happiness.
The internet is our golden ticket to success, but is it truly life? How has content creation and consumption evolved over the past few years, and what should we try and change?
Aayush Tiwari, Head of Talent Management at Monk Entertainment, shared some late-night thoughts on the creator ecosystem that illuminates this trajectory, giving his followers some valuable advice.
“Money is important, but creation as a job cannot be all transactional – especially when you’re a creator on the internet with a significant following,” he wrote, highlighting how many creators begin posting content as a hobby, only for it to overwhelm their life and cost them their physical and mental health. In this glamorous, on-screen, cutthroat field, a committed long-term plan is needed to ensure long-term success.
“After attaining a specific reach, you must ask yourself what your soul wants,” he said. “Choosing what the herd decides is the trend may not work for you.”
The consumer-driven agenda of the creator economy is no secret: content creators are increasingly defined by views, followers and collaborations rather than their own niches or personalities. Aayush highlighted this phenomenon and described how it has affected the content ecosystem.
“It feels like there’s no niche; content is a monotonous world. Everyone is comparing with a negative motive, compromising quality over quantity, letting delusion and imposter kick in when creation represents an INDIVIDUAL self and areas their mind venture.”
However, Aayush also questioned what “success” actually meant, and if it was truly worth the cost to our individuality and humanity.
“The internet runs our house, but it is also the worst place to live. With the ever-growing demand for relevance, many internet personalities have thrown their mental health for a toss. We’re trying to be who we are not, and by the end of the day, we forget who we are.”
Content creation should be more than just a data metric: it should allow us to embrace creativity and relive what made us what to pursue it in the first place. In the process to be the best and garner the most numbers, our individual identities and human connection with creators are lost along the way.
“I hope to relive the times when content was king and number wasn’t the only metric that decided human existence,” Aayush wrote.
However, while content in itself is meaningful and important, it is not a substitute for life. In a world that increasingly relies on productivity and results, it is important to learn – or relearn – to exist as yourself in the world around you, to take time off, and to spend time with those around you.
“We have stopped giving ourselves breaks. On breaks, all the internet thinks about is how to make the most of this time and extract content. No, just no, sometimes just breathe and reconnect with the offline world,” Aayush wrote.
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Aayush’s post serves as a valuable and much-needed reminder to those in the creator ecosystem to prioritize content and living. It is what will make the creator economy grow, and it is what will truly make you happy.
