The internet is not always fun, there are toxic influencers and content creators online. There are toxic issues circulating online.

And due to the chaos of recent social media events, I was going to write about the dark sides of influencers, content creators, and even marketers.

I was going to be thorough, detailed and hit hard. But I couldn’t bring myself to finish the article. I was adding to the toxicity.

And to be honest, I felt bad for them.

I was going to trash the topic completely, but today, there was a discussion on one of our group chats about another marketing material gone wrong online. There were different perspectives exchanged, from far right, to far left and neutral. And I wanted to talk about it more, find out about what other people thought about this too.

So I wrote this instead. And here it is.

I honestly think these people always start out as having an authentic story to tell. They start with a passion for sharing, and if they can turn it into a living, they felt like they were the luckiest people on earth.

But creativity doesn’t always come in a steady supply. Sometimes, you just run out of fuel, or your numbers drop. And so, these creatives end up emulating what used to work, what has worked for others, or worse, they end up making whatever gets some eyes on their content.

The messages end up being the last priority. What matters are the numbers, the stats and the money. They start doing crazy stunts, creating offensive materials, lying and pretending to be something more interesting, or digging up anything that they can convert into content and numbers.

Creating art offline is different from creating art online. Online, people expect you to roll out content, if possible, on a weekly basis. When you stop, the money stops. There is no rarity value.

I’m only human, I try to be neutral and fair, but I do get annoyed. However, I also know how difficult it is to be expected to deliver consistent quality content, so I also feel for them.

So in this post, I acknowledge that many have gone low and toxic for the sake of content and views.

I choose not to add to the toxicity.