A fruitful conversation I had recently was about how internet culture, so to speak, will never produce anything of real value that can be passed on, especially when talking about content meant to attract viewers amid a nearly endless amount of material. I do realize that I am casting a wide net when making this point, and many, rightly so, will point out the significant achievements the internet has fostered throughout modern history.
“Real value” can also be up for subjective interpretation depending on the lens through which you view it. Those assessments are valid; however, my focus revolves around the incentive structures that underpin online interaction and how the relationship between creator and consumer, by necessity, leads to the warping of the product into one that’s easily digestible on the go.
Watching videos to consume information has become commonplace in this era; this medium is accessible to every human with an internet connection, takes less effort to comprehend, and ranges from hours of lectures to bite-sized shorts, depending on your need.
All often demand no monetary compensation apart from a few ads that show up momentarily during each video, a price many are willing to pay. Watch time, click rates, and subscriptions are the currency in this world, with the digital platform sharing the revenue pie depending on the amount advertisers pooled into that specific video. In cyberspace, videos are as common as dirt, and many never attract a wide viewership.
However, those who succeed outshine others by excelling in grabbing people’s attention. Videos are tailor-made and fine-tuned toward their corresponding audiences, usually referred to as niches. Catering to the desires of that base translates into higher click rates and compounding views. The creator is beholden to his or her audience’s whims and desires.
According to the free market, where everyone is on the same platform, one would imagine that rich competition will inevitably arise that produces better content overall. I believe this to be true to a certain extent, but online bubbles, or echo chambers, circumvent this, where the consumers of a particular creator get caught in an ecosystem of the same recurring narratives.
In fact, when too many cooks spoil the broth, the methods for rising above the noise are few and far between. The landscape becomes swamped with an abundance of the same parroted messages, and the bandwagon becomes cramped and tricky to navigate. Only occasionally does a truly unprecedented video emerge of shocking significance (which is often the case in breaking news), or a sensationalized fabricated narrative is created to a similar degree.
Such is the reason why outlandish reactions and misleading titles have become the norm, why trading shame for clicks is rewarding, or why distorting the truth to substantiate the headline becomes necessary. And all of that is under the presumption that no political maneuvering is pulling the strings behind the scenes to orchestrate a pretense of natural discourse.
Now, all of those above reasons, and many more I have failed to mention, are why I believe no pieces of work that will stand the test of time will appear in the online industry. The deck is too heavily stacked against a creation that goes against the grain and is not purposely designed to ratchet up views, but instead to convey an idea that doesn’t aim to please the immediate desires of a particular audience. When the intentions are not even aligned toward genuinely probing into the human heart, it is safe to rule it out.
Now, on a final note, I do admit that decrying all online creations as being of no value is a stretch; it would be more accurate to say that most, if not all, trending or popular pieces of content we see in the present will fade away into the sands of time.
Specks of gold falling through the sieve do not disprove the incentives created by these virtual platforms. As the saying goes, the exception does not disprove the rule. And while I used video as an example, any transactional online relationship is under the same contraints. Whether it be videos or web novels, pandering to base desires is essential to hold attention and stand out among the crowd. Classics may happen to exist online simply due to the ubiquitous nature of the internet, but they will not be a product of the motivations set by our virtual landscape.
