I like this image I took from the hotel in Lisbon the other week, as I think it is one of those "multipurpose" shots that can be used for various things, especially when it comes to talking about taps, drips and perhaps them closing.
No, if you are wondering, I didn't post the same image twice, I reedited it because I noticed something that was annoying me with the second image.
See it?
It was painfully obvious to me once I put it on the bigger screen (edited on the phone) and once seen, it couldn't be unseen, so it was back to Lightroom to make the change. I do this kind of thing a lot, though I rarely tell people what goes on behind the scenes in regards to images, because they are not the main drawcard of my posts - if there is a drawcard at all.
For me at least, content is important, but it is not the most important thing in regards to what makes a good post or the like. The most important thing is the impact a post makes and what affect it has on the audience. This is more than just getting a laugh from a meme, or getting given a lot of "good" information, because if there isn't engagement with the post, it is largely useless. And even the engagement is more than comments or votes, it is about whether the audience does something as a result of consuming.
How much is a laugh worth?
No idea.
But less than what some people seem to believe, because no matter how much you laugh, it isn't going to put bread on the table. Sure, if you make other people laugh enough, they might be willing to pay you for it as entertainment, but in order to pay, they are going to have to earn something elsewhere. For most of us, we need some kind of tradeable skill or service in order to earn and despite what we might believe about ourselves, most of us aren't funny enough, so we have to have something else.
How good are you at sports?
Probably, not good enough. But, having a hobby can definitely be leveraged, which is one of the great things about Hive and for me, photography is a hobby that supports my content. However, I am not a photographer by trade and my expertise are severely lacking if I ever tried to monetize it in a field of professionals, but this doesn't stop me combining hobby with expertise.
See the connection?
It is possible to be a professional without being an expert, and it is possible to be an expert without being a professional, but if you don't have experience, it is impossible to be an expert and it is very unlikely anyone is going to pay you to be a professional.
On the internet, it is pretty easy to feign expertise by stealing the experiences of others and rehashing it as if it is your own. It is more than just plagiarism, it is a complete misrepresentation and if people are influenced by the content, it can have some pretty dire consequences for them.
As an easy example, a lot of the truth-seeker content is coming from people who have no more direct experience with a topic than Google does. And in fact, likely less, because they will filter what they consume to fit their world view. It is the same with the people who write posts about the top 5 ways to make money, or methods to lose weight, or beat depression. For most of them, they have next to zero actual experience and most likely in real life, are nothing like what they purport to be on the internet.
Google professionals?
I wonder if there was a way to calculate the amount of information put on the internet and how much is actually coming from people with relevant experience and expertise, what would the ratio be? 10:1? 100:1? How much is just regurgitated information coming from others?
Perhaps this is why so many people don't actually give personal stories, because it would show that they are not nearly the image of what they have presented. It is like those influencers who take glamorous photos, leaning on someone else's Lamborghini. It is a lie, is it not?
And as said, it is the impact that really matters, but what if the decisions that people are making are based on lies? Isn't it the same as "unrealistic body image" being created by people who photoshop all of their images, like the Kardashians? How is that healthy?
I have always found people lying about themselves interesting, because it must mean (unless highly narcissistic) that they live in a constant conflict between what they know and what they portray. This might come with some kind of imposter complex and fear of being caught, but more than that, it must make them feel pretty bad, even if they try to justify it, creating excuses as to why it is okay. Like,
I need the money.
life has become far more complex than it was in the past and the way information has been treated has created a system similar to the economy itself. Back in the day for instance, gold was gold, it was worth what it was worth and even when the dollar was used, it was tied to held gold, making it more "real". Now, it just keeps get printed, pushed into circulation so that there is informational inflation, and value deflation, since scarcity of information is no longer a thing.
Back in the day, a blacksmith would have to create something that could be judged, as did a painter. But now, expertise no longer require "proof" whether what someone knows is a skill, or stolen from others. There is a disconnection from reality and the content regurgitators themselves have lost touch, meaning that they tend to believe that what they know has value, even though they don't actually "know" it at all, since they have no direct experience or developed skill, they are just cutting and pasting from others, over and over again.
While this is possible now, I believe that in the future there is going to be more checks and balances in place to ensure informational integrity, including the source of the information. Through blockchain verification and webs of trust for example, it would be possible for cross-referencing of information across multiple points to be able to give an accurate confidence score as to whether what is being said is valid or not, with one of the factors being who said it.
What happens to the influencers?
I suspect the tap is closing, because what constitutes an influencer now is going to change, because skill is going to be important again. When there is information verification and payments going to those who actually create the content, not regurgitate the content, expertise will be the new gold. Digital currencies the medium of exchange.
From the comfort of your own home.
What are you learning to trade?
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]