Why everyone should be a creator
Stop tuning in and start broadcasting
The demand to become an independent creator is on the rise. According to Signal Fire's report, more than 50 million people around the world consider themselves creators. That's roughly 15% of the American population. In another report by Nielsen, 54% of surveyed Gen Z indicated their desire to create their own company. On the supply side, companies are investing heavily into building the infrastructure and programs to increase the size and speed of bringing more creators to market. Square's recent acquisition of Tidal, the music streaming service led by Jay-Z, signals the fintech giant's desire to become the leading financial payments tool for creators. Substack and Clubhouse launched an investment fund to accelerate creators by covering their upfront costs.
With resources at hand, coupled with lower distribution costs and broad audience targeting, becoming a creator is easy than ever. Making money doing it however, isn't. For instance, the top 3% of Youtubers have 90% of the total views, concentrating advertising revenue at the top. On OnlyFans , the top 1% of creators make 33% of total revenue, and the top 10% make 75%. This leaves a majority of creators on the platform making less than $145 a month on average.
None the less, they are all creators, regardless of income they earn. Those who engage and participate develop a healthy balance between consuming (contributing economically) and creating (contributing diversity) that allows the creator economy to flourish into a vibrant community of artists, voices and makers. For the industry to prosper, platforms need to focus on closing the wealth gap and empower middle-class creators to continue to produce and grow.
"In the real world, a healthy middle class is critical for promoting societal trust , providing a stable source of demand for products and services, and driving innovation . On platforms, less wealth concentration means lessening the risk that a would-be competitor could poach top creators and threaten the entire business." - Li Jin, The Creator Economy Needs a Middle Class
However, beyond existing creators, there is an even larger category of people that need to be empowered to create - the passive consumers. On average, millennials spend up to 18 hours a day consuming various media content. They also have massive buying power, spending $1.4 trillion in 2020 among 82 million content consumers. While passive consumption is great for the economy to mobilize creators to move upwards, it becomes precarious when the individual consumes without actively creating.
Study shows that active engagement or creation (i.e. commenting, producing, sharing) improves overall well-being, while passive browsing (i.e. no direct social interaction or contribution) tends to negatively harm well-being. Passiveness increases social comparison, feelings of FOMO and poor self-perception.
There is no such thing as information overload, there’s only filter failure. - Clay Shirky
It's easy to assume that the rise in user-generated content is the perpetrator of overconsumption. But as Clay Shirky suggests, the abundance of information is not the issue, in fact, it's vital to maintain a diverse and democratic society. The issue is that the rate of information we consume outpaces our ability to filter and process the data. As a result, it affects our ability to make effective decisions, to think critically, and detect misinformation.
To avoid consuming wasteful or irrelevant information, all consumers need to also be creators. Does it mean that we should all strive to become the next Charli D'Amelio, Mr. Beast or Addison Rae? Not necessarily, but we should take the time to consciously filter and process information to render it useful, which is often tied to an output. This could mean producing your own content, providing commentary, or simply formulating your own opinion.
Being a creator is simply an expression of your individuality, creativity and opinions. It’s not about the amount of income you earn or size of audience. Platforms should encourage existing creators to continue to create and contribute to the vibrant ecosystem by democratizing opportunities to succeed. But they should also find ways to capture the large group of lurkers by empowering them to participate and provide better ways to filter the volume of content.
With the increasing dominance of algorithms making it easier to conform and automate our lives, we must embrace and preserve what makes us unique as humans by becoming creators.
Hi, I’m Oleena and welcome to Cryptocurious Creator, a space for courageous and contrarian minded people. If you enjoy going down rabbit holes and exploring different topics, including the future of work and society, the state of media and technology, Web3 and current world issues, let’s go down these holes together 🐰🕳️.