You open your Instagram app and a content creator is giving you #travelgoals, you scroll and you see #relationshipgoals, scroll a little further and you have #iykyk reels that make you search the internet up and down for context. Hashtags, reels, stories, posts, you have too many options to look at. What’s hiding beneath this excessive content consumption is ‘paid partnerships’. Is it really hiding though? Iykyk!
Most baby boomers and some of us millennials grew up being awe-struck by large colorful hoardings that showed us life-altering (yes, we thought that!) innovative products and services. We’d switch on our television sets and there you have it; the TVC of Cadbury’s scrumptious Dairy Milk made you want to head to the store and enjoy a bar on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Fast forward to 2024; let’s see what Gen Z got us. Now, you see a content creator garnishing your good ol’ products with a humor, dance, fashion or makeup twist and you head to… Swiggy Instamart! E-commerce, quick commerce, instant commerce, ‘have-it-right-now’ commerce, whatever you want to call it, it’s got your back and your bank balance.
In the 90s and 2000s and even the early 2010s, we used to wait patiently or… Well, we had no choice, but to wait against our will sometimes. A good or a bad thing? Perhaps both. Mark Zuckerberg and Michael Aldrich (look him up!) have given the world the gift and the curse of instant gratification – 30 second attention spans and a barely-there 10 minute patience. As viral as it may sound, there’s seldom an antidote to get away from the pressure we’re putting on our brains, self-esteem, bank balance, relationships, and more. We have so much to lose!
Sounding cynical much? I’m heading towards something that might surprise you (pleasantly!), so hold on to that judgment for a bit.
COVID-19 was a physically, mentally and emotionally debilitating phase. The only thing that got our spirits up at the time was content creators. It was like an outlet for us where we could relate to so many other people on the internet.
While social media has been around for quite some time, it exploded during the coronavirus pandemic, which was easily one of the worst times of our lives. And this is just ONE of the many bad times that content creators have made your day, or month or your whole year. While we might not resonate with all of them, we do relate and connect with a few that go on to become our favorites. There’s more to how content creators ‘influence’ us.
Remember, that one time when you felt ridiculed for your sexual orientation and you wanted to end it all, but you didn’t because you saw Sushant Digvikr’s content and got inspired to stay afloat and eventually realized that what others think of you doesn’t EVER matter.
Remember, that one time when you felt so terrible for being skinny and started hiding under oversized clothes, but saw Dolly Singh being unabashedly herself and practicing self-love. You started looking at yourself differently. You started building the courage to love yourself just the way you are.
Remember, that one time when you felt ashamed to ask intimate questions and shoved your sexual health under the rug for years, but saw Dr. Cuterus’ (Dr. Tanaya) content that made you feel so comfortable about your own body and sexual wellness that you shed all inhibitions and made that long-overdue appointment with the gynecologist.
Remember, that one time when you were sad as hell and had buried your face in your pillow weeping till you drowned in your own tears, but you saw Bharti’s content and laughed till you cried happy tears!
Content creators have changed several lives. They’ve made the impossible possible. They have given each one of us at least one superpower because they, just like us, started with and overcame their own insecurity, awkwardness, heartbreaks, job losses, and more
So, if they promote a brand, why is it a big deal? Their content helped us at our worst. If in whatever small way we can give back to our favs, why not? For most content creators this is their livelihood. A word of caution though: Verify the authenticity of the brand, services and the products before blindly buying anything and everything you see on social media posts. As we already know, what you see isn’t always what you get.
Having said that, it’s important to absorb how the world has changed. Brands market and advertise their products differently, we consume content differently and we live our lives differently. Content creators are the biggest brand currency at the moment. We’re not in the 90s, 2000s and 2010s. While we’re allowed to get nostalgic from time to time, it’s equally important to move with the times.
In Julius Caesar, Brutus says: “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, and we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.”
In simpler words, go with the flow.
Nowadays, it’s less of big hoardings and televisions and more of social media and content creators ruling the advertising world. Times have changed, and time changes everything. The only way to deal with change? Embrace it.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying go buy stuff from Myntra because a content creator said so. I’m also not saying start consuming content from every creator there is out there and forget that you have a life outside your devices. I’m only saying, cut them some slack, not because they’re perfect human beings, but because just like us, they’re anything but.
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