Content monetization is one of the biggest blessings of the digital age. Sometimes I still sit back and wonder how people can stay inside their house, pick up a phone, say something funny, and suddenly their bank alert will come in. It still amazes me. There is this man I follow on TikTok; he doesn’t even do anything serious. He just sits in one corner of his room, presses record, and starts making funny videos. Before you know it, he has gathered thousands of followers. Brands are calling him. Money is entering. And he never left his room. When I see things like that, I can’t lie, I smile because this new world has opened doors for so many people.
And truly, that is the good side. Content monetization has given people opportunities they would never have had. People who didn’t know where the next income would come from suddenly have a source. It has lifted many out of depression, idleness, and even poverty. It created a new kind of job, a new kind of fame, and a new kind of freedom. In many ways, the digital world gave people power.
But somewhere along the line, things changed.
People started depending on it too much. It became the only plan, the only dream, the only hustle. Nowadays, when you ask some people, “What work do you do?” they’ll boldly say, “I am a content creator,” even though they are not earning anything yet. I once saw a woman crying heavily on social media, saying Facebook had still not monetized her account despite all the content she had posted. Tears were rolling down her face, and she kept saying she didn’t know what else to do. People were in the comments telling her not to depend on it, that she needed to find something else to support herself. It was painful to watch, because it showed how many people now rely on the digital world for survival.
Then there are the extreme cases. The ones who will go to any length, any at all—just to create content. Prankers who don’t care whether the person they are pranking has high blood pressure or a heart condition. People who dress or dance in ways that embarrass even themselves, all because they want the algorithm to notice them. The kind of things some people do for visibility can make you question if the world is okay.
The truth is simple: not all content is worth being paid for. Some content adds value, makes us laugh, teaches us something, inspires us, or brightens our day. But some other content? It doesn’t even deserve our data, not to mention our money. The internet has become like a marketplace where everybody is selling something, but not everybody is selling something meaningful.
Content monetization itself is not the problem. It is the way many people now chase it blindly that worries me. Instead of seeing it as an opportunity, some now see it as the only route to success. Instead of building skills, learning trades, or getting proper jobs, many people sit and wait for one video to go viral. And when it doesn’t, frustration begins.
Maybe the question we should be asking is this: Are we creating because we have something to offer, or because we are desperate to be paid? Until we answer that honestly, the digital world will continue to be filled with noise, some good, but many not worth listening to.
