By Rahul JP
Let me begin with a simple but uncomfortable question: Are you truly a creator on social media, or have you quietly become the product?
We are constantly told that social media has democratized expression. Everyone is now media. Everyone has a voice. Anyone can publish. Anyone can build an audience. The platforms call themselves free — free to join, free to post, free to express.
But here is a simple economic truth: if you are not paying for the product, you are the product.
The so-called freedom of social media operates within a system far older than the apps themselves. Media scholars call it audience commodification. Dallas Smythe extended Marx’s critique of capitalism to the media industries and argued that commercial media does not primarily produce content; it produces audiences. Advertisers do not buy programs or posts. They buy people.
They purchase access to groups with predictable characteristics — audiences who will pay attention, in measurable numbers, at specific times, through specific channels. These audiences are aggregated, categorized, and sold. In this system, communication is not the final product. Attention is the actual product.
Under capitalism, Smythe argued, when you are not sleeping, you are working. Labor does not end when you leave the office; it extends into leisure. The difference is that most of this labor is unpaid.
When you scroll, watch, react, comment, pause, or replay, you are not merely relaxing. You are producing data. Your time becomes measurable. Your behavior becomes analyzable. Your preferences become marketable. Every click, every hesitation, every emotional reaction is recorded and transformed into behavioral data. That data is refined into predictive models. Advertisers no longer target a vague mass audience; they target your demographic profile, habits, aspirations, and psychological vulnerabilities.
In this system, what you think about the content matters less than the fact that you are present, trackable, and segmentable. The product is not the video or the post. The product is you.
Traditional television and radio sold audiences too. But social media has taken this process to a new level. Now it is not just about what you watch; it is about how long you watch, what triggers you, what keeps you scrolling, and what makes you angry enough to comment. Engagement has become currency, and your behavior has been converted into capital. Platforms claim to give you freedom, but what they are monetizing is your participation in that freedom.
And such freedom comes with strings attached. Social media has undeniably opened doors. Marginalized voices, independent thinkers, students, and communities ignored by traditional media now speak without gatekeepers. Editors no longer control every narrative. That shift was revolutionary. But this freedom is conditional. You may speak, but only as far as the algorithm allows. You may tell the truth, but only if it holds attention. You may go viral, but only if your content remains profitable.
Virality does not guarantee truth. It does not indicate depth or necessity. It only measures engagement — content that captures attention long enough to generate value. In short, the system rewards reaction, not reflection.
Another bitter truth: if these platforms are “free,” the billions they make come from you — your data, habits, impulses, fears, and desires. Every click, scroll, and reaction is extracted, analyzed, and sold. We know it, yet we remain. This is what Antonio Gramsci called hegemony — when the system’s logic becomes internalized as common sense, when exploitation feels like opportunity, and participation in your own commodification seems natural. We accept being tracked, measured, and packaged because the system convinces us it is our choice and our freedom.
Then there are the creators, lured by promises of fame, independence, and wealth. Most never earn sustainably. The platform captures the real value. Creators compete for visibility, investing time, energy, and identity into algorithms that decide their fate. Burnout, anxiety, and invisibility are structural, not accidental. The system is not broken; it is designed this way.
Here lies the harsh reality: in this capitalist system, it is almost impossible to produce genuinely pro-people content or true artistic creation. Capitalism consumes artistic capacity. Everything we create is measured against profit — not purpose, not creativity, not expression. Our art, our ideas, our labor — everything is filtered through the lens of monetization on these so-called “free platforms.” Authenticity and genius are secondary. What matters is what can be sold.
The numbers speak for themselves. In a world of 8 billion, more than 5.5 billion have access to the internet and social media, yet only around 100 million are actively creating content or trying to survive as influencers. Just a couple of years ago, Goldman Sachs predicted this number would be 50 million. Job cuts, economic uncertainty, and the desperate search for income have fueled this race for visibility. Everyone is chasing attention. Most will fail. And yet, the system thrives on that struggle.
The promises of freedom, reach, and profit are illusions. The truth is harsher: capitalism devours art, creativity, and human labor. Every idea, every passion, every expression we produce is measured against profit, not purpose. Social media does not simply turn us into creators; it turns us into marketplaces. If you do not recognize this, you may realize too late that you were not producing content — you were producing yourself by becoming the commodity.
The lesson of history is clear: exploitation never endures. The content you create can be more than posts, videos, or reels. It can be a weapon, a spark, a signal of resistance. Let it challenge, disrupt, and expose the system that turns your attention into profit and your labor into data. Make your art, your words, your stories a rallying cry. Rise. Mobilize. Awaken. Resist. Do not let the platforms or the machinery of capitalism steal your spark. Turn your creativity into a movement, your content into defiance, and your voice into a force the world cannot ignore. This is not simple expression. This is rebellion. Resist commodification. Do not create for the system. Create against injustice. Declare to the world that you are not a product. You are a creator, a human, a revolutionary.
