As I was scrolling through my TikTok page one night, I couldn’t help but notice how the people I once loved to watch content from on social media now annoyed me. I couldn’t relate to their lavish lifestyles as a 21-year-old college student eating ramen in my Walmart pajamas. Therefore, their content was just becoming an eyeroll and a scroll to me. Seemingly, I found myself following more content creators who had similar lifestyles to me: college students, those with jobs in the marketing field and people who looked like they hadn’t gotten Botox or spent every day in the gym. But why, if I used to love the glamorous, LA lifestyle of the YouTubers I used to watch, did I no longer enjoy entertaining myself through that content? Let’s explore.
Over-saturation and Burnout
When I was a kid, the lavish lifestyle I saw my favorite lifestyle creators living seemed like something I wanted to aspire to become, such as going on brand trips and being sent insane amounts of PR from luxury brands. As I grew up, it wasn’t that I thought this was unrealistic. I knew if I truly wanted that, I could do it too. I grew up and realized the overconsumption of products and constantly filming my every move was not something I aspired to do. I realized watching people with everyday lives similar to mine gave me more comfort and motivation than any out-of-touch content creators did.
Relevance
As a college student, I found that content made by other college students at similar life stages allowed for more relatability. This featured advice, tips and entertainment that resonated with my current situation. Any content I saw that was out of reach was entertaining but didn’tt give any substance to my life in terms of advice and tips. Seeing YouTubers with millions of subscribers complain about managing their multiple houses and being stressed that they had to juggle facials, manicures and walking their dog all in one day was more frustrating than enjoyable. I realized that I preferred content I could gain something from, rather than content that made me realize just how out-of-reach these influencers were.
Shift in Personal Goals and Identity Formation
The overly saturated content of the mid-2010s was entertaining at the time, but soon that content became so scripted and no longer aligned with my goals and identity. I didn’t want to see a peppy “What I got for Christmas” haul with luxury items when I could be watching a person’s vlog on their typical college day and finding it motivating to get up and do my own work. My own goals in life shifted from wanting things, to wanting to be someone. I found many of the creators I used to watch were very focused on the things they had rather than the things they did to contribute to the world. My identity changed from wanting what they had, to becoming a person who had goals that weren’t superficial and physical. Content that motivated me to eat healthy, go to the gym and study while also reminding me that it’s normal to have off-days was what I directed myself toward. I found the college and 9-5 content creators typically expressed that they hadn’t done everything that they wanted to do, that they were struggling and were open enough that their viewers could relate. This to me, was the difference in content shift.
After realizing that I no longer enjoyed watching creators who were oversaturated and seemed too out-of-touch with reality I realized that this may be the case for many other people too. With content on college students and people with 9-5 jobs surfacing on my ForYou page, maybe it was also on other peoples. Have you noticed a shift in the content you used to view, versus what you currently watch? And has this shift been the same switch from unrealistic to more relatable content? 2024 seems to be the year for regular people to blow up on the internet, with people becoming tired of seeing things unrealistic and unattainable on their social media feeds.