Why It’s Time to #cancel Our Current Content Culture
A thorough look
Constant Content
It’s no secret we are living in a ridiculously outrageous time for content. It’s constant, it’s fleeting, and it’s annoying as hell, quite frankly. There’s no more originality; we’re all doing the same dances, the same recipes, and the same sob stories. We create content based off trending sounds and topics instead of what actually interests and speaks to us. Going viral used to be for the select innately humorous, highly offensive, or naturally interesting few — now it’s as common as a zit. Even when you do feel like you hit it big and actually made an impact, there’s always going to be someone or something doing it bigger. Better. Less. More. There’s no way to win because there are no rules but everyone’s a judge.
When we fall into this place of constant communications, comments, and content, what’s real anymore? What connections are natural? Which conversations are genuine? How are we to tell the difference? We are so concerned with consistency that we’ve lost all sight of quality. I mean, really…how much of what you consume is actually valuable to your progression as a human?
This post is sponsored by Tribefy.com. It belongs to a series of articles where we explore what it means to belong to certain tribes of people and to be a part of this shared identity.
Developmental Detour
I’m no health expert, but I can’t imagine that this constant flow of in-your-face content is good for anyone’s personal development, either. Children are being handed an iPad instead of a coloring book to calm down. People are turning to TikTok to air out their relationship grievances instead of speaking to their partner in person. Older generations are trying (ridiculously) hard to stay up to date on trends while their younger counterparts are doing everything to remind them they’re well past their prime.
It’s also forcing our mental well-being to walk a dangerously thin line. In addition to the pandemic burnout, we’re all experiencing, this constantly-connected culture is forcing us to believe we have to be “on” at all hours of the day, every day. Emails are sent expecting an immediate response without any regard for office hours. Employees, friends, & partners are “pinged” constantly, giving them no feeling of the actual release, disconnect, or escape. How are we supposed to miss & appreciate one another if there’s never a moment apart? We are quite literally suffocating ourselves with our own availability.
Positive & Pressured to Produce
In the first week of January 2022, I tested positive for the Covid-19 omicron variant. As I was laying in bed trying my hardest to breathe while every modern medicine known to man worked wonders inside me, all I could think was: I should be doing something. How terrifying is that? While the virus that stopped the world in its place ran its course through my very own vessel, I felt inclined to produce something. Like my sudden increase of white blood cells wasn’t production enough. Truly, I felt like a letdown for letting myself have downtime. I felt like my talents, mind, and creativity were completely behind schedule.
I was only sick for 4 days.
Nobody’s Innocent
I can’t pretend I’m innocent, either. I find myself mindlessly scrolling more often than I care to admit, and doing my part to create trash content whenever I’m bored and feeling good about myself. A lip synching Tik Tok here, a trash tweet there, and suddenly I’ve fallen into the deep depths of the culture I despise. Normally after a social media rampage I’m so embarrassed by what I revealed about myself to millions of faceless critics inside my screen that I delete everything anyway. I just feel foolish for contributing to this farce concept of creativity when I could’ve been working towards accomplishing actual goals that will increase my satisfaction with life.
I’ve taken it upon myself to put in the work necessary to ween myself out of this culture I never asked to be in. Less screen time, more face-to-face. Less scrolling, more moving. I can’t control the consistency of content creators, but I can control the content I personally consume & create. This means unfollowing accounts that don’t align with my personal goals or values; unfriending people who don’t support the person I am today and want to be tomorrow. I even left my beloved social media marketing job to work for an amazing start-up company that’s more focused on connection. Although none of these changes have been particularly easy to make, they’ve all been extremely worth it.
In fact, I have felt so much better about myself since I’ve limited my content intake. I feel much more confident now that I don’t compare my looks, life, and love to someone else’s feed. I am happier, in general, because I am present in moments; in my surroundings; and in the life I am actively living. I’ve connected with coworkers who view life through a similar lens as myself, despite our varying backgrounds and locations. Since getting involved with this project, I’ve been able to reevaluate my priorities and relationships, in-person and online, so they can align with the life I want to lead. Now, I can be sure the content I’m creating and consuming is leading me towards a life of fulfillment.
No matter how we feel about it, the content culture is here to stay. The only way we can win is by limiting our consumption and still making an effort to prioritize the beautiful, genuine aspects of being a human being.
Tribefy
This article has been sponsored by Tribefy.
Tribefy is a social networking platform that connects people based on their interests. You can join tribes you belong to and connect locally.
At the center of this article is our #content_creators tribe. This article explores one team member’s assessment of the current content culture and how powerful it can be if harnessed properly.
To know more about Tribefy go to our website: tribefy.com
Or check out our tribes: #content_creators, #freelancers, #minimalism — just click on a link and join us.
