What If You Just Want To Write…For Fun?
The Internet is slowly destroying all of our hobbies
I hate the word “monetize.”
Until about 5 years ago, nobody except corporate boardroom types ever used that word. Now everybody uses it.
It started, I suppose, with YouTube. That’s probably where I first became familiar with the concept as it related to producing some form of content, and then later collecting money for said content.
Now, everybody wants to “monetize” everything.
Whatever happened to just having a damn hobby?
Side hustles.
They’re omnipresent in today’s world. Thanks to the COVID pandemic, a lot of people suddenly had to figure out how to start making money in new and different ways, since their former job got vaporized. Whole industries downsized during the pandemic, including food service, hospitality, and travel. In their places sprung up a thousand new AirBnb locations, and a million new places on the internet where people were frantically trying to “monetize.”
Aka, pay the bills.
Unfortunately, the need to pay bills and out food on the table put many people within arms reach of that uniquely online form of grifter: the Influencer. When people today, post-pandemic (though what post-pandemic means is up for debate), talk about the creator economy, what they’re actually talking about, more often than not, is the Influencer Economy. How can you tell the difference? Here’s three easy hallmarks to distinguish the two:
1) a Creator makes and sells things; an Influencer sells you an idea. Usually one about how you can be successful or significant in some way. They sell you basically a more important You.
2) Creators have customers; Influencers have clients. Usually ones that they’re trying to convince to follow their own rules to achieve some desired outcome.
3) Creators never “monetize” anything. Sometimes they make money from selling their thing, whatever that thing is, but that’s because what they’re selling has some form of intrinsic value. Influencers “monetize” because what they’re selling is not intrinsically valuable, so in order to profit, they must find ways of earning money that have little to nothing to do with their actual product.
Your time is too valuable to waste trying to make money off everything you do.
In the arena of Writing Words On The Internet, there seems to be at least a dozen Influencers to every Creator.
These influencers are forever writing “meta” posts, in the hopes of attracting new followers that they can monetize. They write primarily about writing. While writing about writing is a perfectly valid topic, it starts to smell a bit like snake oil when that’s your ONLY topic.
Above all, writing Influencers insist that you must find a way (and they have a helpful ebook of 25 such ways, for a couple bucks and/or your preferred email address) to monetize your writing. Why would you, they ask, waste your time writing for free, when you could be MONETIZING?!
Here’s why:
- Because we enjoy writing.
- Because it fills some sort of empty space within us.
- Because it makes us feel more connected to our own inner lives.
- Or maybe, just maybe, because it’s fun.
The surest way that I know of to ensure that you come to despise the idea of writing is to approach it solely as a way to make money. Note that I didn’t say no one should ever make money from writing, just that, like many other things that the Internet keeps hounding us to “monetize” money can’t be the only reason.
In my experience, people who attempt to monetize every activity, every hobby, and every interest they have, usually end up without any actual enjoyable hobbies, or any real interests. They end up as pretty boring, miserable people.
I believe that as humans we need to do things for free. We need hobbies, not so we can monetize them at any opportunity but because sometimes the best things in life really are free. Contrary to popular opinion amongst the Influencing Class, there are absolutely things that, if you’re good, like REALLY good, at them, you should 100% do for free. Things that feed the soul, or calm the mind. Things that become stories to tell, or things that make you a more interesting person.
Ultimately, if you attempt to monetize every single interest or skill you have, you’ll have reduced yourself to just another commodity.
