THE CULTURE OF CREATORS

Ok I know, I know, a lot of people ~care~.

I’ve hit the point where I have TOO MANY THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS ABOUT CULTURE. So we’re doing this in bullets:

• Creators are a valuable and integral part of the internet ecosystem. Arguably creators are the binding that helps trends take their true form. Key moments in our cultural timeline are catalysts but creators are the jet fuel. Dissemination of cultural currency via creators is literally how “sounds” take off on TikTok.

• Culture moves rapidly, and creators have to shift and change and morph to continue to stay relevant - to know what is acceptable and what is not. They have to know what’s going on online, sure, but they need to MAKE what goes on online. They have to decorate their little corner of the internet with viable currency in which real-life humans might find value.

• But generally speaking, most of the time, no one gives a care (when I was little, my older brother used to say “I don’t give a care!!” when he was frustrated and someone pointed out something he should be concerned with. It sticks with me to this day). There’s just too much online at this point. Our culture has created an environment on the internet where there’s LITERALLY something for everyone. And not just everyONE but every VERSION of that one person.

  • So why do creators, especially those just starting out, continue to think people care? And why do they shift and change to continue appealing to the “majority” of their followers?

  • Because, apparently, when you slap a filter on it, and post it online, and are deluded enough to THINK people care… the desired audience just sort of starts to care???? And isn’t that INSANE to think about?? That regular people like me or you or your neighbor just… go online… and they’re like “ok someone on here ABSOLUTELY wants to watch me brush my hair and lip-sync to this recording of the office.” AND. PEOPLE. DO. THEY LOVE IT!

• Things go viral in an instant - virality in 2022 is like the blink of an eye. What used to be a huge ~moment~ is now really maybe a few hours on Twitter where everyone is talking about it and then people move on. Think about the “viral” things of the early – mid 2000s. I like to call these things “the start of the internet.” There really aren’t that many of them — Charlie bit my finger, Gangnam style, Shoes, Salad Fingers (which I refuse to link, I reject that dark energy) - I could go on but there are enough that I can remember them. Today, something goes viral on TikTok or Twitter essentially every other day.

Also, frankly, trending content isn’t actually all that big of a deal anymore.

I genuinely consume so much media I forget what was popular a few days ago - NAY, A FEW HOURS AGO!!

So what I’m trying to say is… internet culture (and really culture in general), while horrible and awful and way too discriminatory and arguably an angry mob of deluded judgmental automatons, is actually oddly welcoming nowadays??

Think about it - the internet wants you to try new things. They want to like that weird thing you made!! They want to see how you did it!!! They want to go into Reddit and dive so deep that they forget what time it is, or what day it is. Internet culture celebrates people who just… give them what they’re looking for - more to dissect, more to learn, more to understand, more to be exposed to.

Just make cool things.
Try it, I beg of you.
Get online.

I’ll throw you a like. We’ll have some fun. I saw on Twitter once and I can’t find it now but it was words to live by - “everything is cringe until it’s successful.” Sometimes you gotta stand the cringe to get to the good part. 

Ok I think that made sense. I can never be too sure.