this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2023
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I don't disagree with what you are saying, but its really not my problem and I don't feel obliged to help them make money.
Its not my problem if their service is costly and not profitable. They don't have to do it. I have no moral obligation to them being profitable.
I'm probably showing my age, but there was a time in human history, where people created things not because it was or could be a profitable business, but because they were inspired to share their vision, or humor, or art with the world. In the years before 2008, and in this mythical time on the internet, we did and were and created simply "for the lulz". If anything, I think that focusing on the idea that your job on the internet is to "generate content" is a toxic leak from neoliberalism/ VC culture. Its the commoditization of the self.
No one joined SA's or Farks photoshop contests because it made them money. We did it because it allowed us to be funny, to one another, for one another. We pitched in together to cover the server costs and that was that. In fact, that's how Reddit stayed alive. We pitched in together to cover server costs so that we could do things for ourselves (memes, nudes, music, whatever..). I learned to code making crappy flash games for new grounds not because it was profitable, but because it was fun, and cool to be a part of a community who loved to make thing and then give them away.
The enshitification of all things is a symptom of a broader issue, which is the commoditization of the process of self actualization, which happens through lived experience. The human desire to build, to create, to make art, to talk, chat and communicate; its part of a process where we find out who we are.
There are plenty of things in life that are worth doing that aren't profitable. The ideal that we should allow a neo-liberal doctrine to determine how we find out about ourselves via our creative expression, for me, is worth resisting.
This is so incredibly well put, especially your first paragraph and the concise term
That is exactly what it is. Anymore you can't even have a hobby without someone chiming in and suggesting you should make coin off it by hawking it on Facebook or TikTok, without ever realizing that the point of a hobby is the joy of it. The monetization of creative impulse tends to destroy that joy and enslave the creativity to its end result and/or the perceived monetary value it may eventually have.
Really well said. Thank you for taking the time to write it.
Well thanks.
The only thing I can ask of you is that you make something, anything, simply for the sake of making it. You don't have to take credit for it. No one even has to know it was ever made. It doesn't even have to be good. But the act of making, makes you more human, and through that, you improve the rest of us.
I think it's awesome that some people would create awesome things just for the love of creation and of sharing it with other people. However, I think we all know that the vast majority of current creators would not create if they couldn't make money from it anymore. Do we really want that world?
That's all a bit separate from the YouTube ads conversation, more about money in entertainment more broadly.