Today, content creators have taken over the social media space, creating interesting and aesthetically pleasing content to make people crack their ribs. Years ago, Facebook was the primary platform where content creators promoted their contents. However, as years passed, other social media apps emerged, particularly TikTok. TikTok is loaded with content creators, and I'm not referring to people who just come and post whatever they like, but rather people who have made content creation their profession. Why does it seem like the content creation space is overcrowded? Why is it that despite the amount of content creators we have, new people are still coming into the industry? Well, that's because they discovered they could earn money from posting things online and make money better than they would do in other areas, like businesses. For today’s Hive Learners prompt, we are asked to discuss the complexities of content creation. Is monetizing social media the worst thing that ever happened to social media.
Peller, a 16 year old Nigerian, recently got a car worth millions of naira through content creation. In a recent interview, Peller revealed that he makes roughly $15k by doing live videos on TikTok. Peller is not the only one that has made it big in the content creation industry. Almost every week, I come across news of a content creator who has either bought a new car or completed a multimillion project. Sometimes, I wonder if they truly make their money through content creation. This same peller recently got his third car. A Mercedes Benz Suv worth 180 million naira, and where did he get the money from? Content creation.
It is not surprising that everyone wants to become a content creator, but that's not the issue here. These content creators want to make money through any means. We all know how hard it is to grow your social media account, especially when there is no influencer to promote you. Starting a content creation brand is not an easy feat. You might work your head out, creating content and it ends up getting less than 10 likes. This is why some content creators resort to creating fake news, controversial topics, and clickbait. They create fake news to generate traffic on their videos, and the more their audience calls them out, the more money they make. Why do you think these content creators get involved in controversial topics? For example, almost everyone in the country is complaining about how the president is not doing his job and how the country’s economy is declining. To generate traffic, a content creator might come out and say that they are enjoying the situation of the country and that the president is doing well.
Now, having established the fact that content creators create fake news, clickbait and controversial discussions, just to generate traffic. The big question is that is content creation the worst or best thing that ever happened to social media?
While it is true that content creation has some disadvantages, we should not overlook the fact that the advantages outweighs the disadvantages. Content creation has provided employment opportunities for people, particularly the youths. Let’s use Nigeria as a case study. Here in my country, there are no employment opportunities. The country keeps releasing fresh graduates every year, yet there are no job opportunities. It has been like this for a long time now, and there is no future for graduates with the way things are going.
Thanks to social media, youths have taken to creating content as a source of income. A lot of content creators are now living the life they want - a comfortable one - all because they make more than enough money on social media. Now, imagine if social media didn't exist. The number of crimes, unemployment and job searching would increase, with youths jumping from one place to another in search of employment.
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Thanks for reading.