the frills and fros of online content
Perhaps it is age (likely it is age) that makes me believe, or perceive, that the digital world is less of what was, to an extent. Not so much as the mid-2000's (or, 2000-2010, when the whole net (those who were active in that era) had enthusiasm for being a quirky/odd Netizen (again, my age at that time played into this perception)). And I wouldn't say this “era” is anything like the 90's, nor should it be – people dreamt up the most bizarre concepts of anything and everything put under the sun in the mid to late 90s – thinking anything could be magically achievable by two servers talking to one another.
No, I mean day-to-day content creation and release currently. General interest in content. Be it YouTube, blogs, et al – I think what “pumps up” and manifests interest on the Web is the energy, enthusiasm, and “hope” within it all, and this momentum comes from, and in ways, originates from younger crowds. 20-something year olds starting a blog, having consistent content on YouTube, partaking in areas online.
Many people (of all ages, but especially the age group mentioned) are on social media platforms (e.g TikTok (I think Snapchat is nearly abandoned by now)), which I (even my fogey-ish self) understand, because that's where all of that age group gather, correspond, or in some (most?) cases just SPEND their time – be they contributing original content or not.
Not marking against how/why one spends time as they do, but I'd be thrilled if blogs and channels and streams contained a kind of wild-eyed enthusiasm for just having that outlet. “A blog! Look at this! Look at me go!” type of attitude.
For some, it's either “ego sail” or “ego crush” – they hit an algorithmic lottery straight on, or they leave the outlet for dust altogether. To an extent, it's the platform's fault for making a win/lose system, but also one has to put their own integrity on the line, and say “well, I'm doing this for me and I/this is not for everyone, so, fxxx it all. Let's do it anyway!“.
Goes for all age groups, again, but this position (win/lose – ego sail/ego crush) is more prevalent with the younger crowds, because it's what they grew up with. Their first interactions with the Internet were social media platforms and those platforms bias algorithms, so it is (to that crowd) “the way it is”.
just noting