Must everything be commoditized?
What happened to connection, creativity, and candid content?
I know this may sound contradictory. I’m building a wellness brand, teaching yoga, and creating content online myself. I understand how visibility and marketing work. But not everything needs to become a branded asset. Not every thought needs a call to action. Not every moment needs to convert.
Somewhere along the way, posting stopped feeling like expression and started feeling like performance.
The creator economy, especially on feed-based platforms, has quietly shifted the incentive structure. Content is no longer rewarded for being thoughtful, relational, or real. It is rewarded for grabbing attention long enough to convert. That pressure trickles down in ways we do not talk about enough.
People start to feel left out. Insufficient. Like they are not creating the “right” kind of content to be seen. Posting becomes something you overthink instead of enjoy. Creativity turns into a calculation. Eventually, it becomes exhausting.
We ask for authenticity, especially with the rise of AI. Yet curated, strategic content is favored within feeds that are clearly built for mindless consumption and doom-scrolling. This is not accidental. Neither is the increase in ads or the constant push toward monetization.
Selling is not the problem. Building a business online is not the problem. I believe it can be incredibly freeing.
The issue is when conversion becomes the platform’s primary motive and creative expression becomes secondary.
Content that once felt relatable is now layered with strategy. Even imperfection has become a trend, which honestly says everything about how warped this has gotten. When being “regular” becomes performative, something is off.
Posting is less about connection and more about comparison.
Less about social interaction and more about transactions.
Less about creativity and more about optimizing aesthetics to sell something.
The quiet fallout is that people stop posting altogether.
They wait until they are more “put together.” They overthink captions. They hold back ideas that could actually resonate, not because they are not valuable, but because the environment no longer feels safe or fun.
What is ironic is that when people do post, it is often met with kindness and support, especially within real communities. But the platforms do not make it easy to find or sustain that. Suppressed reach, performance metrics, and constant comparison do not encourage authenticity. They turn expression into labor.
And labor is not fun.
I would love to feel optimistic about where current social media feeds are headed, but I do not. The lane feels chosen. Real change would require people stepping away, and historically, when that happens, many do not return. Facebook is a clear example.
If there is a silver lining, maybe it is this. We still get to choose. We can step back or untether ourselves. We can prioritize real conversations. We can create without constantly asking what it is worth.
But it also does not have to feel like a job we never applied for.
xoxo
coco
