Social Media Platforms & The New Success Criteria
Social Media sites and digital broadcasting platforms have provided spaces for content makers, even carried some of them to stardom, and provided millions with stimulating financial income.
No doubt that Social Media platforms have raised the ceiling of freedom of expression and opened the way for many to TV channels and fame. The materials of tweeters and video makers have become a news source for many media organizations.
However, the relationship between content creators and owners of social networking sites has been subject to conditions dictated by one party, in which the rights of the producing party and the primary source of the material that feeds these sites and platforms are almost absent.
We know very well that YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or any other platform would not have been able to make any financial profit without the presence of a video, a picture, or a written story, and these platforms cannot have any reason to exist as well without the presence of a consumer (viewer, reader…).
So what are those services provided by social networking sites? and who are they?
Are they publishing and distributing companies?
Are they tech partners in the process of publishing the content they receive from their readers, subscribers, viewers, and creators?
Note that the analysis and evaluation of hundreds of millions of videos and tweets are purely algorithmic and rarely involve any human intervention.
When was this done? Since when did the robot have the right to evaluate a poem, a story, or any other creative work?!
Do you know when?
Since the goal has become the number of herd members who follow this or that site, since we decided that our value equals the number of stars, likes and views we reap from a post or photo.
But the danger is not only here, wait until dollars get involved.
The financial value of the product we upload to YouTube will not be determined by the publisher (YouTube, in this case) according to a commercial contract. Instead, the number of views is the only metric set by the publisher.
Furthermore, to stand at the literary value of the creative work, more than the viewer’s criterion may be needed to be fair to the producer and the product.
The number of views for videos that contain nudity or sexual acts is in hundreds of millions, and their owners and the publishing platforms, reap substantial financial profits. Thus the number of views cannot be relied upon as a fair measure of compensation for content creators.
The texts of most contracts between content creators and digital platforms are almost contracts of compliance with the terms of this or that platform without it providing the lowest guarantees under the terms of fair competition.
How is it conceivable that the number of views is the criterion of financial profit if we compare a sex or erotic clip with an academic or scientific lecture whose purpose is education?
Is the cost of producing a series of mathematics lessons, for example, the same as the cost of a videotape of a young woman dancing half-naked? However, the criteria for evaluation and financial compensation need to consider this product’s intellectual value and educational vision; instead, the number of views becomes the evidence of success and excellence.
The role that video platforms and social networking sites play in destroying values, undermining diligence, and raising the levels of insignificance is dangerous and harmful for the future of young people and presents them with easy money-making that does not depend, in essence, on hard work and diligence.
This opinion may seem strange and isolated in its evaluation of the updated definitions of the term success, and young readers may view it as traditional, conservative, and lacking of a vision of modern times. However, the truth is that all human societies today are on the threshold of moral collapse because of this systematic invasion and most of the solutions offered lack an alternative strategy.
No one is against displaying, publishing, and social media platforms trading their followers’ materials according to participatory contracts in which the gains are for both parties. However, I oppose the wide doors for all types of products on an equal footing regardless of their value.
YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok, and others should have provided financial incentives to young people interested in scientific and intellectual research. Inventors and creators should have a more significant share of incentives, regardless of the number of views. These platforms are supposed to automatically promote their products to create role models for young people instead of being proud of the number of views they reap through trivial, empty, and sometimes dangerous materials with catastrophic consequences for their mental health.
Why is financial compensation for digital content so important?
What is the relationship between the financial outcome and the fight against insignificance?
The answer, in short, lies in the organic relationship between profit-making and the level of youth’s interest in trivial content.
The answer, more frankly, is that social networks, if left unleashed, will become a threat to the future of entire generations.
A child of the twenty-first century is born with an electronic device in his hand, whether a cell phone, iPad, or something else. From this moment on, he becomes a consumer of any product !
If the new definition of “success” is the number of likes, clicks, followers, and views, do not blame your kids for running after clicks and views and not paying attention to their classes.
We have failed miserably in stopping the waves of superficiality, pettiness, and intellectual distortion plaguing future generations and our societies’ future.
All is happening under the eyes of legislators, officials, and politicians who use these platforms to promote their electoral campaigns. For these platforms to become richer and the dilemma more and more complex.
How long will we remain idly watching?
How long will we allow ignorance to consume our most valuable human asset, which is future generations?
I think the time has come to establish checks, balances, and conditions that enable us to employ these platforms in serving the consumer and sometimes to stand in their way when the financial benefit prevails over the moral aspects and to prevent it from turning into a time bomb.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Newslooks.com
