I’ve been grappling with a similar line of thought. For my business, I create and post on IG (a platform I never personally used until I had a business). I worked with a business coach and began doing all the content creation things - posting daily, making reels and sharing in my stories. Every single day. I told my coach it felt performative at times, and on a deeper level I resent turning my life into content for someone else. I’ve been pondering how to have a service based business in this day and age without being so dependent on social media.
Because one thing that I notice is that my mental health improves when I consume less content, and I don’t really want to participate in this fire hosing anymore. It’s too much and it’s not good for us.
Thank you for the article. I’d read another take on the term ‘creator, itself and how it shifted from influencer.
Thanks for reading. As a freelancer myself, I also struggle with the necessity of social media, and like you, I feel a lot more mentally and emotionally healthy when I distance myself from content.
The term "content creator" can mean so many different things, but when the role involves heavy use of social media, I think it has to be performative, at least to a degree. I'm not exactly sure there's a meaningful difference between "influencer" and "content creator with a large following"...
I totally agree.....there's waaaayyyy too much content/stuff out there. Do we really need it all? NO, we don't. For so many, it seems that their entire lives revolve around all this content. Life would be so much better and CALM if we all just ignore most of it and LIVE.
Great piece. I’ve recently started to differentiate content and art in my life, and it’s my first step on distancing myself from the onslaught.
For the first time in my life, I’m (almost) okay with calling myself an artist simply because the last thing I want to create is content.
Thank you. I would certainly call you an artist.
Thanks Jayson, means a lot.
Thanks for putting your art into the world.
I’ve been grappling with a similar line of thought. For my business, I create and post on IG (a platform I never personally used until I had a business). I worked with a business coach and began doing all the content creation things - posting daily, making reels and sharing in my stories. Every single day. I told my coach it felt performative at times, and on a deeper level I resent turning my life into content for someone else. I’ve been pondering how to have a service based business in this day and age without being so dependent on social media.
Because one thing that I notice is that my mental health improves when I consume less content, and I don’t really want to participate in this fire hosing anymore. It’s too much and it’s not good for us.
Thank you for the article. I’d read another take on the term ‘creator, itself and how it shifted from influencer.
Thanks for reading. As a freelancer myself, I also struggle with the necessity of social media, and like you, I feel a lot more mentally and emotionally healthy when I distance myself from content.
The term "content creator" can mean so many different things, but when the role involves heavy use of social media, I think it has to be performative, at least to a degree. I'm not exactly sure there's a meaningful difference between "influencer" and "content creator with a large following"...
I totally agree.....there's waaaayyyy too much content/stuff out there. Do we really need it all? NO, we don't. For so many, it seems that their entire lives revolve around all this content. Life would be so much better and CALM if we all just ignore most of it and LIVE.
Amen to that.