Trends and the Loss of Authenticity
It’s no secret that social media is a popularity contest, but the stakes have become higher over time. Before, it gave you status and bragging rights. Getting a lot of likes meant you were cooler than your peers. That was the extent of it. With the growth of online networks and entertainment in recent years, the stakes have risen. The turn of the influencer age has facilitated careers built on social media, driven by likes and engagement; it has a real impact on a person’s life if they can make a living through their social media audience, and this has had drastic effects on the creation of content in any capacity.
There’s a new desperation that comes from posting online. Whether or not you set out with the goal, you have the possibility of going viral, gaining followers, getting brand deals, and making a career out of your online content. This is the elephant in the room of every social media site, and it changes the way we post, create, and identify. Behind every piece of content, there is the desire to earn money from it, and with this desperation comes a loss of authenticity.
The possibility of making a living on social media means that people are less attached to their individuality and less confident in the value of their uniqueness. Instead, they move towards what might make them more money. Something more bland, more palatable, that will be received by the masses. Social media becomes less of an art form and more of a business deal. Success is quantified by the number of followers you might have, or the biggest brand deal you could acquire, and not by your uniqueness or your ability to express your individuality.
As a result of social media, the key to success is relatability, and the answer to that is often blandness. Anything too unique or too far from the mainstream is doomed to fail in the numbers game, simply because fewer people will relate to it, and this has dampened creativity.
On a broader scale, consumerism has affected the creative process. Clothing brands will release something that sells, and upon this realisation, they’ll repurpose it, maybe adding a new collar or an extra button, and sell it again in the name of high sales numbers. Value lies only in these targets: selling as much as possible, making as much money as possible, and the notion of creating a meaningful, high-quality product that perhaps only a few will possess is becoming increasingly rare each day.
In the same vein, speed is currency. Just as we scroll on social media in search of a quick dopamine hit, the creative industry has suffered a similar effect. Consumers are impatient, and they want access to the next thing as quickly as they have access to information, people, and media online. The creative process has become focused on the output, creating new products and bringing new ideas as quickly as possible before your audience loses interest. After all, why would they wait around when they can get any product they want at the click of a finger?
It is now less valuable to be creative for creativity’s sake. It seems pointless without a product to sell at the end, because the rise of consumerism has led to the commodification of everything, even human processes. Creativity has lost its importance because there is always someone else who can, in theory, do it quicker. For instance, the rise in dependency on AI is reflective of the importance of production over creation. Creativity won’t bring you any money unless you have a product to sell, and now, more than ever, all that is important is making money.
Written by @freyadunlop | Copyedited by Shaunamay Martin Bohan (@f4wnfatale)
