I've moved my blog to WP: idefiningi.wordpress.com
August 24, 2012
content (adj., n.)
I've spent so much time over the last 2 years thinking about content. Having written my thesis on media and content marketing, having begun a career in online communications, and having continued to be an avid content consumer, I should have realized this sooner: How utterly ironic it is that it also sounds like a very important, often unexplored, adjective. Content.
To be content, I think, is really far different from being happy or full of joy or many of those other frilly ways we describe the state of not feeling something bad - like sad, lonely, empty, etc. There's a beautiful and simple subtlety about being content - something natural, calm, and full of release. Rather than the experiencing of some kind of time-stamped smile or an energetic burst of hedonistic satisfaction, being content is plain, good.
In my work, I think a lot about content strategy, social media, branding and all these "outer-world" kind of things. Lately, I found myself thinking about how we consume information, what we define as "social", and how the online universe affects our everyday (as in, for example, how Facebook makes us lonely). Content is king, and we are slaves of it more than ever in this speedy information-propelled age.
Navigating the online world = Marketing ourselves
Self-branding online is not a new concept. But somehow, I can't seem to put aside this idea as it always reminds me of the demands of a digitized identity. The ways in which we express knowledge - of the world and of ourselves - are changing.
Everything is becoming more and more social online: Google increasingly adjusts it's algorithms to crawl what it deems as "social" content; online activity increasingly informs how and where we choose to "hang out" or hold conversations (online and off), (the same conversations via which we consume, use, and disseminate content). We know more about our world and the world knows more about us - but do we know too much about each other and not really enough about ourselves?
Our Ego has always been the mask that we use to present ourselves to the world. But web communications, and social media more specifically, is giving us a chance to manipulate this (much less transparent, much more agile) mask. Some of us may not even realize we're wearing it. Many of us may be even more aware of the mask though, which may be affecting our happiness because we don't feel real.
The internet is democratic
Online channels are democratic. The internet is a space with flexible hierarchies, where unconventional people can become significant influencers.
Companies, for one, have great opportunities to benefit online - they can take advantage of conversing with their market, which benefits consumers as well. At least, the web has opened up opportunities where marketing can become more interactive, expressive, and real. But does this democratized space harm us as human beings in any way? Just because the conversations are more real and the marketing appears more transparent, doesn't mean we feel more real, more understood.
Sorry - I know I can sound preachy in my posts. I often look to express conclusive answers to questions that I pose (albeit using puns and quasi-homonyms). But this week, I'm going to just ask a bunch of questions - and I'll be content to find that the answers we scramble for may simply float around my question marks - and that that's enough.
Does the internet force us to not be true selves? Or is it just part of our developing another ego, a new way to present ourselves to one another?
Do we recognize the difference between appearing content and actually being content?
Are making of our private life too public?
Should we have anything to hide? Is there value in holding on to something just for ourselves?
Are we practicing content marketing every day when we post status updates? What does this mean?
How does online influence feed into our confidence offline?
Is social media just a new tool for human socializaton?
 |
| "We are living in an isolation that would have been unimaginable to our ancestors, and yet we have never been more accessible." - Stephen Marche (The Atlantic) |
To be content, I think, is really far different from being happy or full of joy or many of those other frilly ways we describe the state of not feeling something bad - like sad, lonely, empty, etc. There's a beautiful and simple subtlety about being content - something natural, calm, and full of release. Rather than the experiencing of some kind of time-stamped smile or an energetic burst of hedonistic satisfaction, being content is plain, good.
In my work, I think a lot about content strategy, social media, branding and all these "outer-world" kind of things. Lately, I found myself thinking about how we consume information, what we define as "social", and how the online universe affects our everyday (as in, for example, how Facebook makes us lonely). Content is king, and we are slaves of it more than ever in this speedy information-propelled age.
Navigating the online world = Marketing ourselves
Self-branding online is not a new concept. But somehow, I can't seem to put aside this idea as it always reminds me of the demands of a digitized identity. The ways in which we express knowledge - of the world and of ourselves - are changing.
Everything is becoming more and more social online: Google increasingly adjusts it's algorithms to crawl what it deems as "social" content; online activity increasingly informs how and where we choose to "hang out" or hold conversations (online and off), (the same conversations via which we consume, use, and disseminate content). We know more about our world and the world knows more about us - but do we know too much about each other and not really enough about ourselves?
Our Ego has always been the mask that we use to present ourselves to the world. But web communications, and social media more specifically, is giving us a chance to manipulate this (much less transparent, much more agile) mask. Some of us may not even realize we're wearing it. Many of us may be even more aware of the mask though, which may be affecting our happiness because we don't feel real.
The internet is democratic
Online channels are democratic. The internet is a space with flexible hierarchies, where unconventional people can become significant influencers.
Companies, for one, have great opportunities to benefit online - they can take advantage of conversing with their market, which benefits consumers as well. At least, the web has opened up opportunities where marketing can become more interactive, expressive, and real. But does this democratized space harm us as human beings in any way? Just because the conversations are more real and the marketing appears more transparent, doesn't mean we feel more real, more understood.
Sorry - I know I can sound preachy in my posts. I often look to express conclusive answers to questions that I pose (albeit using puns and quasi-homonyms). But this week, I'm going to just ask a bunch of questions - and I'll be content to find that the answers we scramble for may simply float around my question marks - and that that's enough.
Does the internet force us to not be true selves? Or is it just part of our developing another ego, a new way to present ourselves to one another?
Do we recognize the difference between appearing content and actually being content?
Are making of our private life too public?
Should we have anything to hide? Is there value in holding on to something just for ourselves?
Are we practicing content marketing every day when we post status updates? What does this mean?
How does online influence feed into our confidence offline?
Is social media just a new tool for human socializaton?
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