The Futures of Online Content Creation
A futures and foresight project detailing the current, baseline and alternative future of content creation
Domain Description
The Future of Online Content Creation
Bloggers, business owners, politicians, news organizations, journalists, marketers, and influencers have one thing in common: they all produce content online.
In today’s forecast, we will review the future of online content creation globally in the next 10 years. This forecast will evaluate content creation’s role socially, economically, environmentally and politically, then we will review current conditions of online content creation, followed by alternative and baseline future predictions, and finally a summary of everything discussed.
Social
According to Zippia, the average age of online content creators is 30 to 40 years old. Content creators’ jobs consist of writing, editing, blogging, updating content, marketing, and promoting materials. Ads on Facebook report that content creators can work from anywhere around the world, and those who make a living from blogging can be seen traveling. Content creators earn income by joining affiliate programs, collaborating with companies, and selling their own products. Some content creators have a college degree, while others are self-taught.
Tech
Online content creation has becomed the new way for journalists to report their stories. News organizations are growing their social presence in order to reach a larger and younger audience. As social media trends evolve, journalists find themselves jumping to the next big social platform, such as TikTok.
[Related Content: Journalists Are Adapting To The Culture Of TikTok]
Economic
Online consumers buy products from content creators. Additionally, small businesses create content and sell products from home internationally.
The need for content creators has created new jobs such as social media marketer, social media coordinator, social media strategist, brand manager, video content creator, TikTok content creator, digital content creator, and many more.
Environmental
The pandemic slowed down the distribution of products in certain regions around the world. Other online content creators are facing issues due to natural disasters that we may not be aware of in the United States.
Political
Content creators that make any kind of profit online also pay their taxes. According to YouTube, Content creators that use YouTube have to follow certain rules before they publish their content.
Trump was suspended from producing content on Facebook for two years, according to an NPR blog post.
Current Conditions
In Journalism
The journalism industry is always evolving to stay alive. Television and radio stations started reaching their audiences through digital channels, according to Pew Research Center. Online content has allowed journalists, creators, writers, and website users to engage with their audiences by making them feel like they’re part of a conversation. As we know, the old way of writing content involved consumers reading a newspaper, watching the local news, and listening to a radio station because technology didn’t allow listeners to get involved. Today, journalists create relationships with the public, look for sources and stories from social media posts, and the public has a larger role in shaping news stories.
Digital journalists apply the same guidelines as print journalists. They acquaint themselves with a wide range of viewpoints, keeping personal bias and opinion from their stories.
In Social Media
Jason Calacanis, an entrepreneur and blogger, says users are their own media company because anyone can create content and have their own audience. It used to be called user-generated content and now it’s simply called social media.
Content shared on social media lacks credibility
Almost two-thirds of online users believe social media has contributed negatively to the U.S., says a report. Consumers know the content on social media is not always what it seems, and at times they don’t know “what to believe” because of the large amount of misinformation.
In Content Creators
Content creators are composed of artists who use technology as a medium to share their work. Photographers, writers, filmmakers, and musicians have been able to make a living of online content. Although, according to a report, “the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has no employment or wage data for bloggers or webcomic artists.”
Creative jobs earn above the $37, 690 median for all workers, except for photographers, floral designers, and craft artists. This statistic does not include self-employed creatives. Their work is protected by copyright laws to avoid others from profiting without consent.
In Business Owners
Companies that create content, such as blogs, generate 67% more sales than those that don’t, which means a lot of businesses are hiring bloggers to create content for their websites. The number of blogs written per day continues to increase.
Click Here to see Blog posts in real-time — Internet Live Stats.
Baseline Future
Expected future of online content creation
The demand for quality content is at its highest, as the entire world is online experiencing the beginnings of a metaverse. Users are living a physical reality virtually without the need to get out of the house, as news, updates, purchases, appointments, and entertainment are found at the click of a button.
In 2030, the future feels like a combination of Minecraft and a sci-fi movie.
Having an online presence will no longer be questioned
In today’s reality, we have shifted from working at a physical location to working virtually. Many companies were adaptable and successful and even intensified their media and technology departments. As the world evolves to a new normal, the gap between the adaptable and non-adaptable companies will increase, and by 2030 all non-adaptable companies will cease to exist.
By 2030, creating content on social media or a website will no longer be questionable for businesses because the objective for companies and users will be to adapt to a new reality, which is a metaverse. All of this will be doable with a headset.
The digital world will be the real world.
Because everyone will be online in 2030, the entire world will own real estate online. With the ability to buy ‘online properties’ and everyday purchases, by 2050 the online world will have its own kind of currency. The online currency will be exchanged for real-world currency.
Just as the real world, users will compete for success and wealth online.
Consumer experiences will drive sales
With a metaverse world, consumers will be able to test products before purchasing. Advertisers will use sensory marketing to win consumers by creating more content that users not only see, but touch, hear, smell, and taste. Advertisers will be forced to develop new techniques as user experiences are limitless.
Consumers’ opinions will be valued more than ever, as they are voicing every detail of a product. Products that don’t have the technology to satisfy users will not be successful in this market. Consumers will hold higher expectations for the products they’re purchasing.
Job demands in content creation
The demand for technology and content creation jobs will also increase. Job descriptions will require applicants to not only manage social media and write blogs, instead they will need to have skills to build software for digital experiences.
Prediction from a stakeholder leader
In 2030, Mark Zuckerberg will continue to focus on profits and will build partnerships with many companies, such as Roblox, to gain profit and offer its products to everyone who sells online. A lot of companies will focus 90% of their advertising dollars on building their metaverse corner. Zuckerberg explains:
“…think about the metaverse as an embodied internet, where instead of just viewing content — you are in it. And you feel present with other people as if you were in other places, having different experiences that you couldn’t necessarily do on a 2D app or webpage, like dancing, for example, or different types of fitness.”
To conclude the baseline future, the world will begin to experience an online reality in the next 10 years, which will mimic our physical world. This advancement will create a better customer experience, challenge advertisers, create jobs, drive sales, and profit stakeholders involved.
Alternative Future
Foreseeing Government Involvement and Outages
In the baseline future, the online world is promising and full of opportunities for every stakeholder involved. Content creators and bloggers have limitless possibilities to create, advertisers and business owners can reach millions of customers daily, and politicians and news organizations can reach different types of audiences, but the alternative future shows how the future of content creation can be disrupted by the government, outages, and stakeholder plans not going as planned.
In the alternative future, the government will increase online regulations. A reason the baseline future has increased in websites, social platforms, and content creators is because of the flexibility and opportunity to create anything without the government investigating every move.
If online regulations increase by 2030, then online content will be like the real world, with restrictions. With regulations in place, users may shy away from using online platforms. If every user is not allowed to create a blog, video or social media post because it’s deemed ‘unlawful,’ then the baseline predictions may reverse.
Freedom of speech will be questionable. In the baseline future, stakeholders have the freedom to create and express anything they want online, but if the government bans content, the alternative future in 2030 will not hold the same amount of freedom. Only journalists, news organizations, activists and maybe politicians will be able to express themselves online. The advancement in media will not be progressive because users will only be receivers, just like it was with TV, radio and newspaper. Communication will be a one-way street again.
According to BBC News article, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram underwent an outage that lasted six hours. Six hours is almost an eternity in the online world. The length of an outage cannot be predicted because it depends on the problem and how fast the solution is found. In the alternative future, the outage may be caused by a natural disaster or technology complications. If 2030 experiences a lengthy outage, then we can expect to see the following issues:
The temporary shutdown of content creation platforms
With the temporary shut down of Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp, more than 3.5 billion people will be affected, according to BBC. If blogging and advertising platforms such as WordPress, Squarespace, or AdWords experience an outage, the number of affected users will be significantly larger.
Families and friends will not be able to communicate with each other
WhatsApp users use the application to communicate with family members internationally. This application is not as heavy in content creation as other platforms, but there are businesses and regular users who will no longer be able to use it if another outage occurs.
Small businesses will have a financial hit
Many small businesses use Instagram and Facebook to create and promote content to their customers. Not being able to advertise online, whether free or paid, will slow down sales during an outage.
Metaverse reality will be disrupted
The famous metaverse predicted in the baseline future will be disrupted in this alternative future. According to BBC, during the outage that occurred in October 2021 people “reported problems using Facebook’s virtual reality headset platform, Oculus.”
Data will be compromised
Although no evidence of users’ data has been compromised in an outage, in the alternative future, a data breach may tremendously disrupt and destroy the future of content creation. Content creators will no longer trust online platforms’ stability, and stakeholders will stop creating content online.
Summary
Content creation will continue to increase
By 2030, we can expect 90–98% of people in America to be online. Due to the high increase, content marketers, creators, influencers, and bloggers will increase every year raising the value of online content creation.
The online world will be the new world
As discussed, having a presence online will no longer be questioned. Additionally, a metaverse reality will exist with the help of a headset, and ‘an experience’ will drive sales and online success.
Unforeseen disruptions
Outages and their lengths are unpredictable. Personal data may be at risk now that everyone relies on technology.
The genesis of the future
The future is beginning to unfold as Mark Zuckerberg focuses on creating a metaverse Facebook. It’s important to say that content creators who don’t keep their corner of the web up-to-date with valuable content will lose credibility because the value of online content will only increase.
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