When is it too much content?

If you are in the digital business — you have definitely heard the words ‘I want it to go viral’.

All clients, partners, sales people…everyone wants it to be viral.

And if the client asks for it, the universe provides. That is why, the internet has gone from an awesome place where people used to learn things to the abode of exploding watermelons.

I don’t mind it. Or rather, I wouldn’t have minded it so much — were it not for the fact that this new internet is killing content. While we now have more things to look at / watch/ read than ever before — all of these things are the same things that everyone else is seeing.

There is a video made by one company to put on one revenue share platform -which is then picked up by all the content hungry ‘aggregators’ trying to get the maximum clicks on their sites— memes are made on that video by the really cool people — and then there is a twitter outrage in between about the video — meanwhile links are then shared on social media by all the people who want to look like they know what’s going on — and then it’s shared on whatsapp groups by their parents and then on and on. Ad nauseum.

All the while no one realizes that the video is doing nothing. It’s not news, it’s not informative, it’s not educational. It’s probably puppies.

And there’s not one video. There are millions. Everyday.

We get funny, DIY, food, travel, hacks, goals, some kind of non-fornication involving porn. Everything.

We get more than enough of everything. That’s my problem. This viral phenomenon pushes up content which is seen by a lot of people. And then a lot more people see it. And in all of this the joy of discovering anything is gone. You added a number to someone’s bottomline. But what did you — the consumer — get in return?

That’s why platforms like Instagram and Snapchat which are literally walled gardens of content are much more impactful than the open feeds. There is more engagement there because you are not led, against your will on clicking on something for a laugh and two minutes gone forever. And more importantly, there is no false benchmark of ‘trending’ — so the content has to work to work.

Just, as a consumer, if you want to contribute to this digital world of ours — sit back and say that you want better. Stop clicking indiscriminately. Make the internet great again.