Summary
The article “Snapchat wants you to post. It’s willing to pay you millions” by Taylor Lorenz is divided in 4 parts and provides the reader with his observations on nowadays social media’s participation and what these networks have become. Lorenz shines a light on Spotlight – the newest feature added to the social media application Snapchat, and explains all the financial opportunities this new resource is giving to social media “creators”.
Throughout his article, the author brings various examples of content creators who have earned extensive profit by posting on Spotlight. One of them is of the 27-year-old Lowe’s associate Andrea Romo, who claims to have earned “about half a million dollars” (4) after posting a video of her sister deep frying a turkey on Thanksgiving. In Maryland, an 18-year-old high-schooler called Katie Feeney earned over $1 million dollars in about two months “posting unboxing videos and funny content” (5). Lorenz intrigues his readers wondering about the good possibilities that could rise from this trend: Ms. Feeney, for example, has been able to consider applying to universities she initially did not intend to due to financial reasons. Snapchat has watched the growth coming from other social media platforms such as TikTok and, with Spotlight, they are trying to re-enter the market and bring influencers and new creators with them – and willing to pay significant amounts to achieve it. Influencer Joey Rogoff, who accordingly to the author has earned over $1 million dollars on the new platform, “believes more TikTokers will begin to shift their efforts” (6).
Lorenz claims that it is hard for most content creators to monetize their videos or posts on most platforms, and that it is already happening a wave, especially of smaller influencers, searching for different platforms that will provide better opportunities and chances of growth. The author takes TikTok has an example, claiming it has gotten too big and competitive, having less space for creators like Dominic Andre, 27, (7), “who creates educational content, is hoping to use the $600,000 that he’s earned on Spotlight to launch a science and education collab house in Los Angeles”.
Spotlight is a new social media platform that belongs to an old-friend of the Gen-Ze’s and Millennials called Snapchat – the company is trying to do a new comeback by providing old and new creators with financial opportunities to bring people back to their media, and, accordingly to Taylor Lorenz, they are doing it in the right way, by showing themselves as a new possibility amongst the crowded and saturated platforms.
It is impressive to think how social media has changed over the course of the last few years. I remember how to me and the people around me, it used to be a way to stay in touch with friends and family and connect with new people who most likely share similar interests. However, nowadays, the importance of social media has shifted to the point it has become to many a land of opportunity. I was born in 96’, my age group lands right in the transaction between Millennials and Gen-Z’s and it is funny to observe how these two generations interact with social media: while some people still use Facebook to post pictures of their children, some others, not much younger, restrict themselves to videos of trends on TikTok. Playing Fakey shone light on the issue to understand how Fake News spreads around social media, and how there are platforms that consistently maintain themselves by doing so mostly with the intention of sharing misinformation.
