SOCIAL MEDIA MONETIZATION: A TWO-EDGED SWORD
When I was younger, at the time, we all knew social media as and to used it as a platform to while time by chatting and getting to meet people. Putting out pictures were just for formality and fun. Although I wasn't and still am not active on media platforms, I understood they were all vibe on vibe.
Then, older ones and our parents would say to us that we should put down our phones and focus on our education, graduating and consequently getting good paying jobs since there were not very tangible benefits from the digital space. But the space grew as more people were creative enough to come up with contents to add to the fun, and even then, there was some level of sanity.
Good for us. Years later, the social media space becomes a powerful tool. And then monetization happens. At least people get compensated and appreciated for their efforts to keep the digital space running. A number of persons make a good living for themselves from it, too. People get jobs, grants, help, visibility, and relationships, to mention but a few from there.
All of a sudden, when monetization came to light, things seemed to take a turn. Almost everyone started to post things. Everyone identified as a content creator.
And because there were more creators than viewers, like an oversaturation type thing, with most people sharing similar content, getting engagements became difficult. But the money had to be made and so a lot of the creators went berserk.
For lack of meaningful content, these people would fabricate stories, true and untrue, they'd make insensitive remarks and snide comments, they would go about making stories off of people's lives by filming them and putting them online, they would put out dirty, nude contents, and share just about anything they feel would drive engagements to them. And it does give them the engagement.
I have come to realize that people like all of the controversy and fall quickly for most of these contents. People click faster to view them and enjoy the drama that comes with it. We might complain about how insensitive and demoralizing and inappropriate they are, but I dare say that we aid it by engaging in the way that we do. We don't give the same energy to those who share insightful, meaningful content.
And that's why, these days, we have online vendors who first post nude content before their business as clickbait. It gets even worse.
And so people only care for the publicity whether it's positive or negative cause at the end of the day, as in our society, it gives fame and some sort of influence.
This social media monetization is causing havoc. This is why everything and everyone wants to make content regardless of how sensitive or insensitive the content is. There are two people fighting, and others just stand around with their phones, making videos. There's an accident victim on the road, but rather than help, cameras are clicking. You can't be sure who's making a video of you as you're about your day.
Private moments are no longer private; they are for public consumption.
Nobody cares about respect anymore. We throw insults at anyone irrespective of who they are because we have access to free data. People turn in their friends and relationships just to gain traction. It's just all about the likes, views, and engagements. It's all just fake lifestyle, unhealthy competitions, and tearing one another down these days.
It is really bad the sour social media has brought to society. We applaud all sorts of nuisances and opinions because it's a trend.
Monetization has to be one of the best things that has happened to that space. However, the surge of any content at all, whether it be appropriate for general view or not, is where we have a problem. Just as there are good sides to monetization which we applaud, in same way do bad side exist which we must condemn and curb beginning inorder to restore decency to our media spaces amd the society as a whole.
I hope that this was interesting to read. Thanks for coming around.
Lol, I also noticed that people are quick to engage in those controversial and fake stories than in real and quality content. It's the irony of life .
Very true.. it's rare to even see anything real on the social media space these day all on the name of content
Content making had turned everything upside down. Fake stories and news had been the order of the day now, it's very rare to see good content again