006 – Consuming More 4 Less

Is this you?  Have you done this?

If so….Advance to ‘Go’ and Collect $200.

If not, replace Tolstoy, Rembrandt, Tchiakovsky, Plato and Hemmingway with Tweets, Memes, Animal/Baby/Food Photos, GIFs, and pithy “Top 5” lists for every topic imaginable.

Is this you? Have you done this?

If so…welcome to today’s society.

Did you notice I used my own “Top 5” list at the start?  Did it work to draw you into reading?

As society has built devices and platforms to consume content at all times of the day, in any place, position, or situation, we have created content that meets these unique viewing opportunities.  This part is so 2010, we all know this.

However, I add an extra layer to it.  It is not merely that we consume far more content of which the substance has declined significantly.  But rather, it is that the aggregate nature of this consumption yields far less applicability and long term value.  The beauty of virality is that it spreads to tens of millions, but just as quickly it evaporates into the hum of the next viral piece of content, like a temperature rises with the flu, it quickly subsides and the status quo returns.

Many see this virality as the beautiful result of the internet allowing the best content to rise to the top for all to see.  The implication is that content is based on its consumption.  The more it is watched, the better it is.  With the addition of social media, the more it is liked, shared, and commented upon, the better it is as well.  But is this true?

What are the parameters of better content?  Does watching it, sharing it, commenting on it make it so?  Take a guess at the most watched video type of all time.  Is it Gagnam Style?  It certainly tops YouTube’s charts with over 2 Billion Views.  29 out of 30 of the Top Videos are Music Videos.  But no.  It is porn.  Xvideos, one porn site (of which there are thousands), gets twice that number in page views 4.4 billion, per month.

Is porn the best content out there?  By certain advertising demographic standards it is.

The measure of virality merely means the level of schema or programming at which the content engages the audience member.  The lower the level, the more basic need the content satisfies–the hopes, desires, fears–that the content plays off of, the more it is spread.  Sex, music, food, pets, babies, sound like your news feed?  How about research papers, dissertations, or updated tax codes pronouncements?

The current measure of successful content is wrong.  Viral content comes in a roaring wave demanding to be accepted, loved, liked, watched, retweeted.  And then it goes.  Its soul aim was to maximize views and engagement.  And once the button clicked, post shared, the maximum value of that particular consumer is reached.  He/She has served his/her duty, diligently waiting for the next piece of content to pass through the platform, like a factory worker on an assembly line, liking the content to pass it on to the hundreds of friends to also like it–except instead of getting paid to work, we willingly and happily do it for free.

Some argue that all these memes and viral pieces of content entertain and shape society. It provides a shared experience with which we can all draw upon to understand the similarities of each other: “Person from country X is just like me.”  One thing is for sure, we all consumed it and many felt compelled to click ‘like’ or ‘share.’  The impact and shaping of society stems not from the content, but from the ability of a platform to get the entire world to watch one thing and click a button.  To get the entire world to be exposed to, think and act in a particular way. That is a scary concept.  Think about it.

Content for social media is not the value.  The value of it lies in the ability to get one thing quickly distributed to the masses of the world.  Platforms provide a prize for those who do it successfully: virality and trending.  But all the platforms care about is that the whole world uses them to consume, and consume more and more.  In order to do that, the content needs to be consumed quicker and quicker to make room for the next one.  But what many forget about is that the content needs to be just as easily forgotten as it is consumed to allow room for the next virus–err I mean viral content.

Remember planking? Shutter Shades? Yolo-ing?  How about the Ice Bucket Challenge?  Even that held months of the collective culture conscious of the United States.  “Oh ya, I totally remember those.”  Great, did anything come about from them?

My bet is on no, they came as quickly as they left.  Maybe you have a photo you might laugh at or admire because of it.  Maybe you have a video or donated a few dollars to ALS.  But what sustainable things did those viral pieces of content create in your life?  How have they impacted your life?

And that is the second caveat to viral content.  While they appeal to the baser needs of humans to allow it to be consumed by the masses, they are just as easily forgotten with little to no impact on one’s life.  Perhaps that should be the judging criteria for content.  And that is what I propose we do: look at content not for it’s engagement qualities but for it’s #application in life.

You may not enjoy reading it, but I guarantee for a lot of you, especially Californians, the cell phone regulation has impacted your life more than a Cia video.  Which one did you click on?  Which one has more impact on your life?

If we look at content from this view, we can take a moment to think and enjoy life outside the light box by consuming healthy, organic content–that which aids in one’s life rather than junk food–that which you are consuming more for less.