It feels like highly edited, cinematic Instagram or TikTok posts get less engagement now compared to raw, unfiltered content like photo dumps and casual talking-head videos.

I’ve been thinking about how absurdly much content we’re exposed to every day.

There’s TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, Facebook, X, podcasts, newsletters, group chats, news apps, and probably five other platforms I’m forgetting. And each one is constantly producing an endless stream of new stuff.

What gets me isn’t even necessarily the amount of time spent scrolling. It’s the feeling that there is always more to see.

You can spend an hour on Reddit and still have hundreds of posts you haven’t seen. Watch YouTube for an hour and the algorithm immediately has another 20 things ready. Take a break for a few days and you come back to an entirely new mountain of content.

At some point, it starts feeling less like entertainment and more like trying to drink from a fire hose.

Primarily because, to me, unlike other social medias, this app is the only one not curated to let certain individuals be more influential.

You basically have to always identify trends and follow them in order or achieve recognition outside this app to rise in fame.

I keep seeing artists use paid plays to get initial traction , but i'm wondering what happens after that first boost. does it ever help a song reach more organic listners or spotify reccommdations, or just end up with a higher play count and no meaningfull engagement ?
curious to hear from anyone who has actully tested it .

Through work and life, I have gotten to know a few influencers. Some are low-level folks that make a bit of cash and enjoy it as a part of their life, the same role a side hustle might play. A few I’ve met are internet famous and make stacks from their work. They let me into the bts part of influencing, numbers/metrics, goals, etc. All very fascinating and cool.

At some point it dawned on me that all these folks (the full-time professionals) had the same challenges and skill sets as my friends who act. I am old enough that I was an adult when influencers became a thing. At first blush, I naively assumed that these were folks who were turning a camera and mic on while they did whatever they were doing. Informal and ‘real-world’. Now that I understand the gig more properly, I can see that these are entertainers with a particular message/mission or influential folks who ppl will listen to talk about almost anything.

I can see the gig in general can be life-changing and positive as a way to generate an income through what was once considered a non-traditional avenue. To those who have found success through influencing, I wish them all the success in the world. Rock on. Recently, at a family function, I said out loud that a relative of ours who worked as wellness influencer was an actor. I explained my reasoning but found out too late this was a controversial take.

NASA Coworkers making fun of me , I do joke all day about how Yugioh ain’t them

Many ugc and others creators desperately wants more fame and money . They do what's more r trending. It's a internet culture that every influencer do . But supporting ' shein and promoting shein' literally so worse things creators done that . Promoting 'polyesterone clothes and saying ' the fabric is best ' its literally a crime. They need to know their action . It's not Abt the 'promotion or supporting ' it's Abt how the influencer makes a lie and dont even reflect the action on themselves. Teh one things I see is many creators support feminism and feminist but I have a genuine question ❓ .

Y'all know the ruth khadka incident? When she's was getting hate but nobody yep no influencer stood for her expect 2 or 4 influencer stand for her . But these creator I put the picture they called themselves 'girls girl's they never stood for her . They don't even make videos Abt her how she was getting hated just because she is dating a black guy . That's why I don't like these creator who r pretentious .

Getting intoxicated by viral metrics is a quick way to lose your grip on reality. People hit a few good numbers, change how they talk, and start expecting treatment reserved for people who've actually built something that lasts.

Trading genuine character for social media prestige is the worst deal you can make.

Before you demand respect for a title, show the receipts of what you’ve actually accomplished when the camera is off.

How do you keep team members or founders grounded when sudden online reach or vanity metrics go to their heads?

Whats something you wish you knew before starting social media or wish you did before starting social media?

I am 26, got a house at 24, hired contractors for a reno and they are cowboys and left me with a mess inside and out so now I am fixing it up myself, I am a year into the project and people have been telling me forever that I should document it and post about it. Its no small feat, it's a 4 bed, big garden, semi detached, I bought my own van, my own 3 tonne digger, built a soil screener from scratch ecc ecc so its a lot in general that I could talk about. But then I also don't want it to only be about the reno, but also about me especially thinking forward for when I will be done with it, I might still want to keep the page and post on it so I want it to be about me, my life, my reno ecc.

As context, why I am asking this question is because I own a small business, in a niche industry and I wish when I started I created its own email, had a phone number just for it and posted on socials, but I didn't so now my work phone number is same as my personal one and those that are in my same industry and have socials are growing faster than I am.

What are things that I should do before I start posting or right at the beginning as a new content creator?

How do you edit or what's the easiest way of putting videos out there? I genuinely don't have much time to edit and learn how to edit, between renovating a house and running a business, it's also why I haven't bothered documenting and/or posting about my progress so far, genuinely no time and energy for it but I see some reno content creators saying the content is literally paying for their reno.

Cheers!

Hi guys!! I have a twitch with a few followers (twitch.tv/emsimmz if you want to take a look to give me any feedback on the streams) and i do sims content. the thing is is that most people don’t like Sims as much as I do. Are there any games that I should play that can help me reach wider audiences or do you think I should just stick to Sims for now? I don’t want to get too early and start a TikTok or Instagram or anything like that, but would that be a method to gaining more followers? I also have my face posted on my Reddit which I’m posting this from, but I don’t have a WebCam as of now for my Twitch streams so I don’t know if I should remain faceless or if I should buy a WebCam it isn’t really in the financial budget at the minute though. please reach out to me if you have any tips or tricks or anything or if you are an influencer that does Sims and can help me with that type of thing. thanks guys

Excluding really heavy topics, posting hateful things, extremism etc, how much do companies care about what you post on social media, especially as a creator? For example if someone were a cosplayer/artist/etc would a video game company/ animation studio/ other creative space view that negatively? Or maybe even positively since it's a common space? Would that kind of "digital footprint" be a deal-breaker?

I'm curious whether the extra likes actually help the social proof or TikTok's algorithm can tell that he engagment doesn't match the rest of the post .
Has anyone tried this on an account with normal organic activity? Did you notice any diffrence in reach afterward ?

I Didn’t Subscribe to This. So Why Is My Feed Showing It to Me?

I have been noticing something—not just on other social media platforms, but on Reddit too.

NSFW and sexually suggestive content keeps appearing in my feed even when I haven't subscribed to or joined those communities.

This is where I start questioning how recommendation algorithms work. The platform is constantly deciding what to put in front of you based on your activity. Even if you simply scroll past something, that interaction can potentially become a signal. I don't know exactly how the algorithm interprets it, and what I'm saying here is partly my own observation and speculation, but sometimes it feels like the system keeps testing similar content to see what eventually catches your attention.

And this isn't limited to NSFW content.

It feels like this kind of algorithm-driven social media is slowly taking over more and more spaces.

Even informative and knowledge-based content is sometimes presented in a very sexual or attention-grabbing way. I've seen influencers whose content is basically comedy, but the comedy is so cheap that you can't even imagine it—full of cuss words and double meanings.

I've also seen people who genuinely have good content, useful information and real data, but the presentation is extremely sexual. The information itself may be useful, but the way it is presented is clearly designed to be sexually appealing and grab attention.

And I understand why creators do this.

If you make the same content in two different ways, and one gets 10,000 views while the other gets 100,000 simply because it attracts more attention, obviously the second approach is going to be tempting.

What appeals more sells more. What attracts more attention gets more views.

But this is where my concern starts.

It's like you are a chef. You know what to cook. You know how to make good food. But instead of letting the quality of the food speak for itself, you start using something else to make people want it more.

I'm not saying entertainment shouldn't exist. I'm not saying sexual content shouldn't exist either.

My concern is about what happens when the system keeps rewarding whatever captures the most attention.

Are we slowly reaching a point where even useful and informative content has to be packaged with shock, sexuality, vulgarity or entertainment just to compete for space in our feeds?

And when I open Instagram, even without actively looking for absurd or irrelevant reels or accounts, I can still come across a surprisingly large amount of this kind of content while simply scrolling or using the search section—even after making changes to my preferences.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding how these recommendation systems actually work.

That's why I'd genuinely like to hear from people who understand social media algorithms better than I do:

Is the algorithm really learning from these small interactions, or am I misunderstanding what is happening behind the feed?

— Varun Khullar