Every Second Matters! That was Tiktok's Slogan when the platform was launched in 2016. What no one imagined is that that would be the beginning of a nightmare.
Suddenly, the entire internet has changed! 15 seconds was all you had to capture attention, tell a story, generate some value for the audience. Ooooou you can do that there: Uhh.
. Yeah. .
I mean. . what the f*ck is this bro?
? How did no one realize this was going to go wrong? After 3 years of a crazy race to see who could get more users addicted to short videos.
. Facebook, Youtube, and even tiktok are all giving up on this format. To understand why, we need to substantiate what brought us to this point of collective internet madness.
The year was 2020. The world stopped, trade closed, and suddenly, we were all confined without the slightest idea what to do with our lives. It started as a 15-day preventative measure until things got back to normal.
But suddenly 30 days passed. 40 days. .
90 days. . No one had any idea how long that confinement was going to last.
. we didn't even know if the world would ever return to normal. The human being is a naturally social creature, and this is not a matter of choice, it is part of our DNA.
We can only prosper as a species because of cooperation and the formation of social groups. And to exercise this basic need for socialization, we only had one alternative. The Internet!
Then something unexpected happened. That application that until then only attracted the attention of children, began to be used by people of all ages. People were using cheap dopamine as an emotional crutch and there was no app in the world capable of generating such massive doses of dopamine as tiktok.
Lockdown, Fear, collective mental health being deteriorated, That was the recipe for success! Success for tiktok, because for humanity, it was the recipe for what would be the beginning of the biggest wave of population degeneration and dumbing down ever experienced. I won't lie.
At that time I went with the wave. . .
I downloaded tiktok and, as I was already creating content on the internet, but in another project, I thought the same as everyone else: ' 'I need to start creating videos on this platform, after all, the attention of people is migrating here at a speed never seen before. It's the opportunity of the century'' What I didn't know is that I wasn't the only one to come up with this brilliant idea. [Compiled from several TikTok celebrities] Make no mistake .
copy the tiktok business model and shove it down the throat, a tool that is bizarrely incompatible with the original platform, just to surf this wave, and recently even amazon and spotify decided to tiktokize their platforms. I mean, whatafcuk? ?
Why is everyone getting into this crazy wave? This cannot simply be a fear of being left out. .
. we are talking about the companies with the most brilliant minds in the world, the best paid analysts and specialists, the best strategists. These guys understood something.
They saw an opportunity that seems to be off our radar. And after a lot of research, I think I've found the answer to that. .
. and if you think it's all about money, buckle up, because the rabbit hole goes much deeper than that. Manipulation From the point of view of those who create content on the platform, it's easy to understand why this video format attracted so many people.
It doesn't matter if you are a celebrity or a completely unknown person, the way the platform was built, combined with the algorithm, makes it easy for anyone to viralize a video. This happens because the app's main tab is not designed to deliver content from the people you follow. It analyzes every detail of your behavior to deliver the video with the greatest potential to hook you on the platform.
That is, you don't need to have special skills, you don't need an overproduction or a large base of followers. Anyone can go viral as long as they can keep people's attention on the screen. And that's when you start to understand the problem, why, the intrinsic incentive for you to grow is superficiality and degeneracy .
15 seconds, it doesn't matter how you're going to do it. I mean, which of these two videos is more likely to keep people's attention? On the one hand, we have a physics genius presenting a formula that took 15 years to develop and has the ability to solve the problem of renewable energy in the world.
And on the other side we have. . .
well. . .
that's it. It's easy to understand why tiktok grew so fast. .
On the one hand, you have people with no talent gaining millions of followers without doing absolutely anything relevant in society. And on the other we have millions of people consuming this shit and melting their brains. That was the formula for short videos to explode among ordinary users and content creators, if we can call that content.
. . But what attracted the BigTechs was something else.
Here's the reason EVERYTHING has become a copy of tiktok: CONTROL! Reels is another one of the many tools that Instagram found a way to copy from someone and stick it in the app. Youtube created Shorts which is basically a Freakenstein that goes in the opposite direction of what the platform used to be.
And all of a sudden Spotify decided to create this infinite vertical scrolling tool that's good. . Re-imagining?
Where have I seen this layout before? oh yeah, on tiktok, youtube and instagram. Even AMAZON, which has nothing to do with content creation, has decided to jump on the bandwagon.
It's impossible not to wonder: ''What do they want with all this? Why is everyone so desperate to have their own tik tok? " The easiest conclusion to come to is.
. money! But the hole is much deeper than that.
It's no secret to anyone that the way this algorithm works it makes you addicted to levels similar to chemical dependency. The thing basically works like a slot machine that, through a technique called intermittent reinforcement, modifies your brain at a chemical level to keep you playing. The logic of these videos it's exactly the same.
You pull the lever and you never know what reward you'll get. Sometimes you get something bad, and sometimes you get something good. In short.
. you become a zombie, ready to take the next swipe. But that's about it the tip of the iceberg, because the more you become addicted to the app, the more you tend to ignore their privacy policies.
A privacy policy that literally admits to collecting as much data about you as possible, from your location, to your contacts information your calendar and even the messages you type IN OTHER apps. Joe Rogan | Modern Struggle is Fighting Media Addiction w/Naval Ravikat Do you understand what I'm getting at? When you realize that the social media model with the greatest potential to addict the population can also be used as a tool to manipulate public opinion.
You understand that the game is not only about money, but also about POWER! In that regard, these companies are being extremely successful. They can get you addicted with tremendous ease, they can spy on you easily, and they can potentially deliver strategic content to manipulate your opinion.
But when it comes to business, there are serious flaws in this system, certainly these companies did not expect to face the challenges that are starting to appear. The truth is, short videos have proven to be a totally unsustainable business model and bigtechs are already changing their plans. INCLUDING TikTok.
The Regret As the standards of the media industry change, it also drastically changes the way we consume something. Your brain starts to get trained to consume content at industry standards, and the sudden shift to short videos is no exception to that rule. Because now the rule has become centered around one thing: RETENTION!
You need to keep as many people on the screen as possible, have them watch your video loop as long as you can. Then the content creators on these platforms started to realize that they can just use tricks. Why do you think half the screen is taking up a video that is totally unrelated to the original?
Simple, if one isn't interesting enough to keep you watching, the other will. And why not consume 2 different contents at the same time? you are mesmerized by the cleaning of the pool while listening to the audio without paying much attention to the background.
Can you see the problem here? The way our brain is slowly shaping itself to consume this new type of content is clearly transforming this market into something unsustainable. Because to get big numbers it is no longer necessary to create any relevant content.
Just use a little hack and that's it. 1 million views. Want proof that your consumer behavior is changing?
Try watching a 90s movie that you used to love. See how slow, dull and boring it will seem. .
According to scientists, our short-term memory lasts between 15 and 30 seconds. And when you realize that the average duration of a video in this format is 24 seconds, you understand one of the main problems: People don't even remember what they consumed! As much as they get chemically hooked and spend hours scrolling through these apps' feeds, they aren't really impacted by any of the videos.
But from the point of view of bigtechs, it doesn't matter, right? They've already got us hooked, they're rolling in money, right? Good.
. no! The reality is that the short video formula is already proving to be a financial failure.
Think about it. . .
this is a constant stream of superficial videos that train your brain to skip anything you don't like in the first few milliseconds and what's worse, make you not pay real attention and not remember almost anything. So how do you think a big company ad will perform on such a platform? Recently, Zuckerberg announced that he will take his foot off the accelerator of investments in reels.
In his words, ''the financial efficiency of the relays is much lower than that of the feed. Therefore, the more reels become popular, the less people use the feed, actually causing the company to lose money '' He created his own nightmare! The same thing is happening with YouTube, which is gradually educating people to open its application to consume short videos.
And what's the problem with that? Virtually all of the platform's revenue is dependent on ads where the user is required to watch for 5 to 15 seconds before jumping. And this is simply impossible with shorts.
Even tiktok who have been extremely successful with this model of videos are realizing that this is financially unsustainable. Little by little they see increasing the time limit from 15 seconds, to 1 minute and now to 10 minutes, so clearly they are investing in longer videos, but the problem here is that with the behavior that the platform has trained users, the people are ready to swipe as soon as possible, this is not the right place to watch these long videos. It's already starting to become clear that this video format isn't working even for the companies that created it.
So what about the other side of this equation? Content creators. The truth is, almost none of these creators are making videos on these platforms because they are truly inspired to do so.
But because they see an opportunity, they see a gold rush. Most of them don't find that gold, but even those who do find it quickly frustrated. TikTok Payouts Fund is being massively criticized for incredibly low monetization even if you get millions of views.
Regardless of shorts, reels or tiktok, most creators who started in this format are already realizing that they cannot create a solid and sustainable business on these platforms. But then what is the solution? What am I supposed to do if the whole world seems to be heading towards this format?
Do you know what else led the whole world to walk in one direction? All the financial bubbles in history! So it is.
In the financial market, the rule is clear: whoever challenges the crowd has a better chance of winning. And the internet economy is no different. Get out of the herd Do something weird, Record a video of you tripping your grandmother, Shake your butt without clothes on and that's it.
Millions of views in a few minutes. What nobody seems to be realizing is that, in this sea of immediacy, creating content on these platforms also implies an undeniable reality: Your content will be marked by a lack of depth and, consequently, the absence of true connection. That's where my biggest mission here on the internet comes in.
I've spent years watching this trend of population dumbing down the internet. I always understood that this would be unsustainable, but I remained silent. So I decided to prove that, in fact, the opportunity is against this trend.
I decided to open a territory still little explored, the territory of depth. Content creators who focus on quality over quantity, and who strive to provoke deep thought and offer innovative points of view, are going against the grain, preparing to revolutionize the future of the digital world. When you care more about quality than quantity, when you care more about delivering high-value content, creating stories that generate connection, preparing a differentiated experience bringing new perspectives that add to your audience's life, you stand out from the crowd.
herd immediately, and people will be willing to consume what you have to say for 30, 40, 50 minutes. Do you know why? Why in a world flooded with short and superficial videos, thought and created with the sole intention of melting minds with massive doses of dopamine.
People are desperate for DEPTH Each of my videos is a proposal for a journey of learning and discovery, an invitation to reflect on establishing authentic human connections. That's why with a relatively small channel I get such an engaged audience, more views than most channels with millions of subscribers and consequently, money. Yes!
You don't really believe that I do all this work, I dedicate my life to a project that won't generate financial results, do you? Don't be innocent, financial flow is extremely necessary to undertake any significant change and fulfill any purpose in this world. Money is the physical manifestation of the value you are creating in the world, it is the flow of life.
I am extremely grateful to be able to follow a purpose and life path and be extremely well paid for it. It is through this money that I strengthen myself to continue seeking new learning, opening unexplored paths and sharing the learnings with those who accompany me on the journey. And I'll tell you one thing.
I would NEVER achieve this goal if I was focused on creating viral videos for tiktok or taking advantage of the new ''hack of the moment''. Lasting success on the internet does not depend on riding the fashion wave, but on building a solid and meaningful personal brand. Content creators who understand this and who are willing to invest in creating deep and thoughtful content will be the leaders of the next digital generation.
The era of superficial and disposable content is slowly giving way to a new era. Content creators who prioritize authenticity, depth and a true connection with their audience will be holding the keys to true prosperity in the digital age. When I started the Abraham channel, it was just a thesis, but now, after I decided to walk this path, I tell you, it is much better and more beautiful than I imagined!
If you're familiar with Plato's myth of the cave, you'll recognize that all of my content here is me going back into the cave and explaining the world outside. My limits stop here, everything I I can do is tell you my experience. But to truly understand it, you need to get off your ass and go outside the cave and see for yourself.
Consume value, generate value, create your own audience, be part of this new digital economy. The way to do this I show you in this video that is on the screen now. I am Abraham, and this is my contribution.
