My lord the amount of “I have a REAL job” in here is too damn high. I work 8 hours a night, 40+ hours a week, in an automotive plant. My job can be very stressful, and physically demanding. So what?
I don’t sit here and whine about people that stare at their screens (IT, developers, etc) all day. Are they really doing any work? After all, they are not performing physical labor.
How is it that different for people who create content? I’d argue that they do more work, as they have to set up, film, edit and market their work.
See how silly this sounds? A job is a job. Unless you own your own business, you are making money for someone else.
It’s easy to try on that pairs of shoes. Those ignorants should go ahead and try building a community, try creating a video with some genuine effort regarding its content and - especially - edit it in an appealing way.
Heck, I was doing some Blender rendering for fun as a hobby and am occasionally recording some demo videos of a project I am working at for my supervisor. Sometimes it takes about two hours to edit a fucking 10 minute video. This is just a huge amount of work. No wonder any creator, who has reached a sufficient level of income, hires editors.
I heard someone talking about a content creator they watch, and how that creator basically can’t take a vacation without losing tons of followers and potentially a major chunk of their income.
A lot of creators will have a number of videos created ahead of time, so they can go on holiday and still have a steady release schedule.
Doesn’t help if you’re a streamer, though. I guess that was a part I left out, whoops -_-
Yeah, that’s a whole different world.
Yep, this exactly. They can never clock out at the end of the day. It isn’t 8 hours of work and you’re done. You’re having to constantly try to innovate. Make tons of content, spend so much time editing, constant filming, constant planning. And if you deviate in your schedule, or upload some content that isn’t interesting, the algorithm punishes you and you may even get people that unsubscribe.
Must be hell when you can’t afford to take a vacation from that content creator life. Can never really “switch off”. Plus the fact that less than 1% actually make it big, and it’s mostly based on luck plus years and years of determination.
I hear this all the time but I struggle to see how it is true. How many people regularly trawl through their feed looking for creators who haven’t posted in X days and unfollowing them? It would be a minuscule number. I’m pretty darn selective with my follows and I think I’d do this once a year, tops.
I think creators are conflating the everyday ups and downs of follower counts on their platform(s) as being something more. And I think the platforms themselves are encouraging this mentality because they need fresh content.
if someone i follow posts a bad video, i remove them from the ‘People I Like’ list and add them to the other list
Just because you do something a certain way doesn’t mean everyone does. A huge chunk of these peoples income comes from the random people who find their videos or streams because of the “algorithm”. Not from their regular viewers. Those regular viewers allow for a certain amount of steadiness, but they’re also more likely to watch videos at a later time rather than right when they’re uploaded. Which is a significant drop in revenue for each view.
I’m so glad I was young before this stupid reality happened. I have a regular job and no desire for internet fame.
you’re just old…
I asked my younger family members what they want to be when they grow up, and being a YouTuber was at the top of the list. I hate this so much.
This whole article is nothing but “waaaaaahhhhhh”.
They should shut up and just enjoy doing something they’re having an easier time doing, than grinding your average 9-5 job. Do they really think they’re the only people on the planet?
sniff sniff “It so hard to turn on a camera and make sure things look right and entertaining for my audience. I thought this was easy street but I don’t know how technology, algorithms or the internet works. I just expected money to come free-flowing into my account with as minimal effort as possible that reflects how many subscribers I account for. Woe is me!! By the way, don’t use ad-blockers for the amount of ads on my videos because I need all I can get!”
Meanwhile, I work in a straining job where I come home, my knees feel weak, my right ankle is aching like fuck, I am mentally drained, I barely can even put together a thought process that tells me I should even have breakfast while fighting the urge to sleep while I try to have a fraction of what constitutes as a life. As well as work in a place, where I am almost always on threat of being fired for something petty because my management feels they have to have a bone to pick with me by fucking around with me and being snarky while doing it.
And all you’re worried about is fucking metrics and algorithms. Shut up. Work a real fucking job. First-world problems. I swear the Guardian went out and picked the whiniest bunch of “content-creators” there is.
Meanwhile, I work in a straining job where I come home, my knees feel weak, my right ankle is aching like fuck, I am mentally drained, I barely can even put together a thought process that tells me I should even have breakfast while fighting the urge to sleep while I try to have a fraction of what constitutes as a life. As well as work in a place, where I am almost always on threat of being fired for something petty because my management feels they have to have a bone to pick with me by fucking around with me and being snarky while doing it.
Why the fuck are you doing that to yourself? Get another job. It sounds highly unhealthy where you’re currently at.
Yes, they do. Sitting alone in a room, creating video content creates a self-centered and narcissistic worldview. It doesn’t matter how many followers you have you are not really interacting with a single one of them. Get out of your house and meet people in your neighborhood, share your work with them then I’ll be impressed
Boo hoo, losers. Your device has a power switch. Influencers have a warped and inflated sense of the value they create. They can stop at any time and use their skills in other ways.
Making good content is hard, but ‘good’ content doesn’t have an expiration date. Shallow brain-rot content does and that’s what the algorithms reward.
The entitlement that influencers have is nauseating. There are many creators out there laboring in near obscurity and producing useful content all the time for little or no compensation.
They are tools for Zuck and fools for propping his platforms up. It sounds like a hard slog, but they can stop any time.
You’re making enemies of your own team. These people are creatives, doing a job they love, and a corporate algorithm forces them to destroy their work life balance to keep doing what they love. And you’re belittling them. You need a reality check, these people are not your enemy.
Nah, if you are feeding the Zuck, not my team. The principled creatives aren’t there.
It sucks to try to make a living as a creative. But giving your efforts to support social media platforms controlled by the worst people is inexcusable. Zuck literally and provably helped the fascists gain power.
The creatives I can respect create because they are compelled to. They work jobs and create when they can. They share their work on less shitty platforms and in actual real life.
Facebook isn’t the only site these people use…
Zuck owns more than Facebook, too. ANY big social media platform is similarly toxic.
These people have co-opted our social discourse for evil causes. And they aren’t the only way to share work online.
Creative people do not have a right to my admiration if they provide fresh bait that the oligarchs use to degrade democracy and civil society
The question isn’t about admiration, it’s about considering them worthy of being respected as fellow human beings who are also struggling. You’re just shitting on them because the way they make their living is more directly linkable to sources you don’t like.
Every job is going to be that way, one way or another. Even many charities will have shady ties somewhere, that most of the volunteers and employees don’t know shit about. Shitting on these people because you don’t respect the things they’re linked to, and ultimately have no control over, is petty and meaningless. It devalues them as humans, and as much as I’m sure you don’t think so, they’re still human. And deserve to be treated as such.
If they’re like the Pauls or something, I can see criticizing them for being shitty people… but that’s not what you’re doing, you’re shitting on them for being part of a system that exists whether they make use of it or not. And will continue to exist whether they use it or not.
Curious who signs your paychecks?
but ‘good’ content doesn’t have an expiration date.
Yes, it does, depending on the topic. If it’s video games, like with MOBAs that get updated regularly, all the content for that patch expires after two weeks. Itemization and champion builds change so much that whatever value there was for you to build similarly is lost, and you’re left with a mildly amusing thing about how something used to be.
I currently scrub toilets for a living while I’m back at school for a mid-life career change. I work ten hours tonight, my feet are still a bit sore from my shift two days ago.
Suck it up, buttercup, get a real job. I’m not sharing all of this to sound like I’m better, I’m sharing this to show what a significant chunk of people do for a living, Joe Jobs.
Being a social media influencer isn’t a job for most people, it’s a vanity hobby.
You’re not like everyone else!
This is the most boomer take I’ve ever seen on this website. And that includes what few conservatives have filtered in.
yeah I’m pretty shocked that a socialist website would value labor over entertainment like that
That entertainment is labor. What are you talking about?
Socialism is about more than unions, that’s just the most obvious aspect in a heavily capitalist society. It’s about the sharing of burdens, which includes more than physical labor.
Does social media create a physical product? Remember, computers need engineers to repair them and electricians to keep the power on. Physical infrastructure.
May I ask what your age range is, and what you do for a living, as well as how much income you make?
By that metric do authors or poets or actors create a physical product? Do computer programers? Since the death of physical media, books and art are now far more frequently digital than paper or canvas. Applications and software is 100% digital. Newspapers are dead, so journalists don’t create a physical product. Is your argument that only physical labor producing physical things is “real” work?
No, there is value in artistic expression and other intangibles. Our ideas are what give the tangibles scope.
What I AM saying is that people seem to think that social media influencers are more important than farmers or gas station attendants or grocers. No they are not. Most aren’t creating anything more than a hobby level. That’s okay if that’s what you want to do with your time, just don’t expect sympathy from those who feed you, keep your lights on, and ensure the comfort of all.
Why won’t you feel sympathy for someone who’s hurting? Why do you feel that someone needs to fall into a very narrow category to be “worth your time”?
Just because someone doesn’t fall into your narrow view of what’s worthwhile doesn’t mean they’re not worth basic human compassion.
Of course they are worth compassion. I just don’t understand their desire to be the center of attention, when all the acclaim of the crowd doesn’t truly bring individual satisfaction.
Fame is fickle and not worth chasing. Achilles found that out the hard way.
I just don’t understand their desire to be the center of attention
There is that aspect of it, but there’s also the aspect of writing your own destiny, about creating something you care about instead of just being a nameless cog in an industrial machine putting out consumerist crap day in and day out. Why is the latter more admirable to you than the former?
Just keeping up with the boomer takes…
Something doesn’t need to be a physical product to hold tangible value.
deleted by creator
Where did I say that social media creates no value whatsoever? I’m just saying that without those who work in physical reality, creating tangibles with tangible things, make the mental edifices possible.
Also, you didn’t choose to share your profession with us. It makes me think that you’re attempting to create a social media presence of your own. Trust me, it’s pointless. I had a facebook fan page with 150-175 people on it. All foolish vanity, nothing more.
To win the acclaim of the mob is what the worst of us amongst human beings do. Do you want to be a politician in terms of expression?
Also, you didn’t choose to share your profession with us. It makes me think that you’re attempting to create a social media presence of your own.
Either that or I don’t think value is only subjective to what you do for a living. That my opinion is somehow less valuable because I don’t fall into a specific field you perceive as valuable.
I’m just saying that without those who work in physical reality, creating tangibles with tangible things, make the mental edifices possible.
And often those non-tangible things help to give those who make the tangible things the willpower to go on. It’s not a one way street, where value is only created by those who create tangible goods and stolen by the intangible. That’s a very pessimistic, if not “holier-than-thou” perspective. As though anyone who doesn’t do what you respect isn’t worth as much as someone who does.
Like I said, a very boomer attitude.
Who did you vote for?
What business is it of yours who I voted for? I even voted for Musk, so what?
Who did you?
You are better.
No I’m not, walking down that path leads to arrogance and unearned pride. I just live in reality, instead of falling prey to the lies of false riches in the social media popularity contest.
Seek for your own answers and Know Thyself. Please, all of you that are always on social media. Withdraw, do not fall prey to the Siren’s Tale of the Glory of Achilles. Instead, seek a good life, one that is quiet, and belongs to you.
Do not become a false god, you cannot live up to that burden.
You can’t turn off any job. We all are burning out in this bitch. At least you’re sitting at home making videos.
So they can’t keep selling their soul and dignity without consequences.
None of us can. It’s just a job, just they get even more shit on because they’re more public facing figures.
You can’t pause the internet
Something I had to tell my mom all the time.
“Pause your damn game!”
“Its online, I can’t pause it!”
I imagine that being a content creator as a full-time job is much more difficult than most people realize. Also, the modern work environment is a hellscape, and I can’t blame people who want to avoid it. Still, it’s risky as hell - if the platform you rely on changes its compensation policies, you are screwed, and have even less legal protection/recourse than a McDonalds employee.
I wouldn’t expect a responsible person to take on that level of risk without a safety net. If you’re young and childless, then taking that risk is your call, and it’s unfair for me to judge you. If you’re relying on social media to pay the mortgage for your child’s home, though, you’d better have a backup plan and keep it ready.
I think they should stop.
Firstly, let’s call them what they are, hucksters.
Secondly, I cannot think of anything I give a shit less about than their burnout at making internet videos of themselves.
If you’ve talked yourself into a world where you must be on social media, you are absolutely fucked. Get out. now.
More like discontent creators amiright?
I’ve taken to calling them effluencers.
effluencers
It perfectly describes their contribution to this reality. Thank you.
I’m hoping it catches on. Spread it around.
The responses in this thread are sick. So much vitriol for members of your own class who are just trying to make a living doing what they love and creating things.
I dont give a fuck about their burnout lol. if they love it so much why are they whining about doing it?
I’m in health care, you think illness has a pause button? I chose this, they chose theirs.
in the early days of the internet, I’m talking GeoCities days, I started what would be called a podcast about gaming. I recorded with windows sound recorder and a shitty Logitech desktop mic and then ran it through RealAudio to compress it to a downloadable format.
I shared it with communities online like IRC and BBS’s.
I got shit on so fucking much that I quit after my 6th cast. I received so much hate that I honestly thought of self harm.
now, it wasn’t right that it happened. but, it happened decades ago before podcasting, live streaming, YouTube, content creators, and influencers were a “thing”. my point is, it is a danger of creating anything for the world. if you don’t have the skin for it, the world will eat you alive, so get over it.
only use things with pause buttons!
