One day we'll all be creators

It’s possible that the idea of an “important” work of popular art, like the idea of movie stardom, simply can’t survive the transition to the digital era. The journalist and novelist Ross Barkan has done interesting writing on this theme, borrowing from Bret Easton Ellis’s concepts of “Empire” and “Post-Empire” to describe a shift from the... See more

Influencers, now a slowly fading cliché in the Internet’s tableau vivant, found success articulating the cult of personality, and marketing themselves as direct-to-consumer-goods. The shift away from this algorithmic surrender can be traced to the macro and micro “creator economies” spawned by the likes of Patreon, Substack, OnlyFans and even... See more

“Niche creator partnerships will thrive in 2025 as brands prioritize quality, storytelling, and shared values over follower counts,” said Julia Baker, senior executive producer at Stagwell agency Instrument.

America has fallen out of love with brands and inlove with people. This is evident in every corner of American life — from politics and business to technology and media. People are the new brands.

Once you know the tricks, it's hard to scroll through TikTok and not see the attempts to grab your attention and play nice with the algorithm. Rather than talking to each other, users trying to win the TikTok game are talking to reflections of each other, miming human connection so lines of code will reward them with more attention.

On TikTok Shop, creators only need as few as about 1,000 followers to become an “affiliate.” On the app, they can scour a list of eligible products, request free samples to make videos, and earn commissions — usually ranging from 10% to 30% — if their videos lead to actual sales.

First, some numbers: Gen Z spends an average of 109 days per year looking at a screen. Eighty percent of our waking hours are spent consuming information, up from 40% in 1980.

Posting like an influencer (because we are)

Our audience has drastically shifted, and therefore so has our online behavior. While it would have been embarrassing for me to post about my morning routine to my 300 followers on Instagram in 2015 (who did I think I was? An influencer?), in 2024 no one bats an eye. We’re posting content that gets thrown... See more

In 2024, Patreon creators surpassed 60 million free memberships, held live fan events, increased monthly revenue of one-time purchases by 4X and the number of creators who started chats by 5X, while engaging with their communities and building sustainable businesses