Why is everyone a “content creator” now, asks Rebecca Jennings of The Goods. Why not “comedian” or “competitive dancer” or “aspiring actor”, she asks. “Didn’t that sound more exciting than two of the most meaningless words in existence: “content” and “creator”?

Obviously not. “More than 50 million people worldwide now consider themselves creators, a term that encompasses everything from YouTubers to podcasters to writers to artists to people who sell courses online to people aspiring to be any of those things...Boringly, it probably has something to do with the pandemic, like seemingly everything does. Bloomberg called the $20 billion creator industry ‘pandemic-proof’ due to the explosion of people monetising their social media followings over the past two years, some of whom were laid off from their jobs, some of whom were part of the Great Resignation, some of whom had time on their hands and screens to stare at.”