If a stranger walked up to you on the street and asked for 20 minutes of your time to listen to his story, what would you do? Would you stop to give him your precious time?
If you thought you’d never do such a thing, if not think that’s totally crazy, then how come you so generously give away hours of your time every day on the internet? Lured by catchy thumbnails and titles peppered with keywords like secrets, why, hidden, what happens, surprising, and shocking, you are giving away your time like Santa doles out presents on Christmas eve.
Multiple multi-billion dollar industries are predicated by their mission to snatch as many hours away from you as possible. It is a business model that spans from newspapers, magazines, YouTubers, influencers, movie & TV studios, advertisers and podcasts. They all have you in their crosshairs.
Did you know that Netflix changes the cover art of TV shows and movies depending on your preferred genre? Drama lovers might see artwork with close-up shots of characters’ faces, for example, while sci-fi lovers see wide-shots of mystical scenes.
Of course, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Their biggest feature to make you spend as much time as possible is the same as other platforms: the algorithm. It generates a profile of you so thoroughly that it knows what you will like better than you do. Instagram and TikTok are also notorious for trying and succeeding in maximizing screen time. And websites personalize the related articles you see that makes you most likely to click.
How many times have you spent endless hours reading article after article, watching video after video? The next day, you can’t even remember how all that time disappeared. Only bare glimpses of what you consumed remain on your mind. When you stop to think back on it, the vast majority of content with question provoking bait titles can be answered in a few sentences.
Do you even remember what you read or watched last week? Last month? How did that article or video you consumed a year ago on this date make you a better person?
Most importantly, have you also noticed how the content you consume is a part of advancing somebody else’s life plan? A gleaming article about an entrepreneur is about their latest venture (and when and where you can buy their product). A newspaper op-ed about a certain issue is about boosting a political candidate or party. A late night talk show with a celebrity is about promoting the latest movie.
A time honored strategy for PR agencies is to sell journalists a premade story of a supposed new trend backed with cherrypicked data, in this case how "wired lingerie is selling well." Note the vague and unquantified term of an item "selling well." Whether a product or product category's sales are down or up 10% (an ordinary fluctuation) or even completely unchanged is completely irrelevant because with clever writing anything can be sold as a trend. A prime example of the decline of journalism could also be seen when the author cited two videos on TikTok as evidence of young people driving this trend.
Journalists love "prefab" because with the story handed on a silver platter they get to skip the hard work of creating new content and in return the PR agency gets to tell exactly the story they want to sell. Writing about the "trend" has allowed King & Partners, Skims' PR agency, to insert their client without overtly appearing as an advertisement.
Finally, note the dead giveaway in the caption which appears next to the headline image: "Kim Kardashian's Skims line, known for its wireless and seamless shapewear, is releasing new wired bras this month. COURTESY OF SKIMS." As you can see, this article was created for Skims to promote their upcoming product (even telling you the exact release date in the article), just like the late show was promoting the soon to be released movie.
This is one of countless examples of how the content you consume is served to you courtesy of the PR industry. Pay attention to who exactly is benefting from an article the next time you read one.
It’s time to start thinking… Hey, what about my life man? Somebody ought to consume me!
What should you be doing instead? First ask yourself, why are you consuming content? Are you bored, sad, anxious, or looking to forget about your current emotional state or situation?
There is a better way. Create content or product instead. I personally found the time spent creating this article to be far more uplifting than spending countless hours gobbling up content. It's time for other people to be reading about you, consuming your content, your product and advancing your life. Be a creator, not a consumer. You’ll find it much more fulfilling and you’ll proudly remember about it the next day.
