Historically, being a Creator wasn’t a career path. Creators have influence, but legacy institutions always controlled the influence.
Actors moved to Hollywood to chase their dreams.
Models relied on agents to book photoshoots.
Musicians needed record labels to write.
Writers needed publishers for book deals or newspapers for distribution.
Then computers came along. And cell phones. Suddenly, sharing information was democratized, and with it came the rise of new platforms, products, apps, and ways of consuming content, which democratized influence.
The 2000s gave us WordPress and Tumblr.
The 2010s brought us Instagram and TikTok.
Meanwhile, other products came and went (RIP Path, MySpace, and Vine).
As the mediums have changed over the decades, one thing has remained: influence.
The rise of influencers on Instagram during the 2010s--who solely relied on affiliate marketing and charging obscene amounts of moolah for a single post about a brand--made them walking billboards.
But we’re entering a new chapter with “influence.” People aren’t simply billboards; they’re Creators.
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