A Life For Sale

 

Photo by Malte Helmhold on Unsplash

Things are not getting easier for young people today.  There's no work pension to look forward to, home ownership costs are ridiculous and unattainable in many major centres, and sometimes those post-secondary degrees aren't even worth the paper they are printed on, much less the tens of thousands of dollars that it cost to earn them.  I could go on, but you get the picture, and it's kind of bleak.

Which is why I'm sure it's very appealing to become a "content creator" on social media.  The 15 second videos, the reels and the YouTubes all have the potential to generate ad revenue and Amazon affiliations that create income.  There's also some measure of fame and notoriety that comes from being an "influencer," and of course it's a fairly accessible and creative outlet that requires no prerequisites, save for having a decent WiFi connection and a recording device.  You don't need 4 years of undergrad, you don't need to shell out an overhead cost, and often, you don't even have to speak (khaby00 comes to mind).  Maybe your schtick can be body positivity or makeup application, or maybe it's #relationshipgoals; maybe you're compiling videos of cute bunnies, or showcasing your dance moves, or maybe you just go around knocking on doors and asking people how much they make and what they do for a living.  The list (and the possibilities) are endless.

I used to think this stuff was easy money, or maybe even low-hanging fruit; that the shortcut to wealth was in pulling out one's camera and hitting record for some silly reason.  

But I don't anymore.

To come up with content every day, multiple times a day.  To have to rush home and make edits on the computer (because sometimes, you really do need a computer for the edits) and post on a schedule so as not to lose momentum - that's a full day invested into work, right there. And then when one considers the amount of cognitive real estate "being an influencer/vlogger/TikTok star" takes up in one's mind, it's a heavy mental load.  Imagine seeing your own life through a camera all the live-long day.  Is that really, truly *living?*

So to this old Gen X'er, I think it's a very damning commentary on how hopeless and bleak our society has become, for (mostly younger) people to aspire to selling their lives for money.  And that's exactly what this is - a life being offered up for sale to any consumer willing to invest 15 seconds or more to watch.  It's not selling oneself sexually (although there is that too), but it is the selling of one's life - of one's daily, hourly, sometimes minute-by-minute "live" lived-out moments - for clicks and subscribers and ultimately, monetary gain.  It is the willful exchange of one's time and privacy and mental health for followers, and it is also the offering up of one's personal content into the permanent ether of the Internet for all time.  

I straddle two different generation because I'm old.  One isn't greater than the other, but different.  In one, cameras didn't have built-in filters and photo-editing abilities, and post-secondary degrees meant employability; jobs offered up a decent living wage, and the only "famous" people were the ones on TV and in magazines.  That generation was more hopeful, because the Earth's resources weren't yet being burned up by consumer greed and global warming, and saved allowances and hard work could still ensure a decent nest egg for retirement.  Was the world a better place back then? Nope, not at all - but there was still a future to look forward to.

That is no longer the case now, so little wonder that some folks have turned to social media as a way to secure their financial future.  And for some, I'm sure it is plenty lucrative; I follow a number of accounts that I'm sure bring in big money.  For others, however,  it's a daily self-sacrifice of their present day life as an offering to the masses in the hopes of catching a sponsorship deal or a viral following.  It's not even a guaranteed money-maker, but it is definitely a more accessible means of earning money that going into debt for 4-8 years at university, or working a long, monotonous job that will only barely pay the bills.

So the next time you watch a reel or a YT video or a TikTok, think about the person creating that content.  What hope do they have of getting ahead, if not by making content full-time and hoping that they hit the major numbers to ensure "influencer" status?  And while it shouldn't need to be stated, of course not everyone making these videos is doing it for the money; some use the platforms for advocacy and education, some for entertainment, and some for a host of other reasons.  But often, these folks aren't doing this full-time, for a living.  It is their recreation, not their profession, and of course I don't consider my own uploaded TikTok (follower count: 1) to be for anything but my own personal amusement. 

But I think our broken capitalist systems need to take some long hard looks at how they are condemning the prospects of our future generations.  Something needs to be done, in industry and education and government and every other institution that fuels the disenfranchisement of folks who cannot “get ahead" except by betting on their uploaded content.  This cannot possibly be the best our society has to offer young people, is it?