The Age of Validation
[Music]
my name is alex kotetz
i do content but i also study a lot of
content
and i’m here in front of all of you
today to do what every normal person
will do on the stage
to check into tedx bucharest all right
let me show people i’m successful now
how am i feeling
feeling proud oh wait that makes me look
like a douchebag
feeling blessed i’m feeling blessed
hashtag advertising director hashtag
influencer live
hashtag eat pray love
the second reason i’m here today in
front of all of you is because
i used to download a lot of stuff
illegally yeah
you see stealing information runs in my
family
i’m romanian in the 1980s
actually in the spring of the year 1980
in communist romania
my grandma was walking home from work
when she passed by this bookstore where
she saw people fighting over a book
the the shopkeeper was trying to get it
off the shelves and
people are trying to get it so of course
she went in
and she realized immediately there was
no chance she could buy that book so she
did what any normal romanian would do
she stole it she brought it home in
great secrecy to my dad
and presented it to him and said
i don’t know what this is but i think
it’s important
and i think you should have it that book
was chill my vid by marin preda
and in that week it had been banned by
the communist regime
and withdrawn from sale
now grandma didn’t know that
because she had been an orphan during
the war
world war ii she had only received four
years of education
primary school but she understood the
value of information she understood the
power it held
and when she saw people fighting over it
she knew she had to have it
and she always kept that book in her
bookshelf
till the day she died now i was lucky
i grew up in the information age i
didn’t have to steal
content but i did it anyway
you see i grew up in an age where you
had access to all of the information
you wanted and you could make the best
use out of it
funny thing now i got my first computer
when i was 16.
i am that old i am that old i was born
like in the year 20 bf
before facebook so i think in the first
two years of owning a computer i
probably
downloaded illegally 4 000 films
i don’t know how many songs software and
so on
this led me to discover a passion
i like movies by stealing content i
became
in love with films by 18 i wanted to go
to college two years
after going after getting a pc i wanted
to be a director
but my family couldn’t afford the
tuition fee that was very expensive back
then
this was like 2004. i couldn’t afford
the education i wanted and i couldn’t
steal it you cannot steal college
education
yet but i didn’t have to because by then
education was free i enrolled in the
cheapest
simplest college you can go to and not
struggle political science
but when i was 19 i enrolled in a second
college
i enrolled in a college it was free you
could take classes anytime
and they have cats i’m talking of course
about youtube
the greatest university on earth
and it’s there where i studied directing
editing sound
lights post production special effects
how to write a script
i became so fascinated with it that i
became a youtuber
in just 10 years or actually less i went
from stealing content to producing
content to selling content
right because in the age of information
the democratization of content allowed
all of us
as prices for technology dropped to
create
to consume and maybe to sell our idea if
it’s good enough
i went from stealing the content to
becoming in love with it
to being educated by it to monetizing it
and guess what to giving it back you
could say that
the age of information has empowered all
of us
to become better people and become more
educated
but if you know me
[Laughter]
i’m not that optimistic you see
the democratization of content has
empowered all of us to create
consume and be rewarded and that is the
problem
because in the age of information
content is now so widespread so easily
available and so accessible for anyone
to produce
that it is starting to lose its value we
are now leaving the age of information
and we are entering the age of
validation and i am part of the problem
i’ll admit it
you see when i told you that my grandma
stole that book
she stole it she cared for it i forgot
to mention one thing
she never read it she never read the
book
could you guess why because it was
volume 2.
chelma bid interpol maintain has like
three volumes
and she stole volume 2. you cannot start
the book with volume 2 that’s like
watching a
sitcom starting with season 8. you get
all the spoilers none of the fun
but what do you think was the value to
her
it was social she only got it because
she saw people
fighting for it she saw that people
cared about it
so she knew it was a value of importance
to her that book
was trending so she took it home and
shared it
with her own personal social network her
son
you see we can say that book had three
types of value right
economic probably cost a dollar social
people obviously cared about it and
informational you could learn something
from it
she chose number two without knowing why
if you went home right now and it was
raining
when you got your laptops and open them
what would be the first picture you’d
see
the rainbow the freaking rainbow
oh and also a bird that burgess ruined
my picture
i’m gonna get less likes
the freaking rainbow is like currency
in the social media stock market
whenever it rains when it stops
the internet is flooded by pictures of
rainbows
someone wants to get more likes they
probably do a video
there are three types of investors in
the rainbow the first batch of people
are
spot on right after it stopped raining
they put cool pictures of rainbows with
inspirational quotes like the colors
over the city the colors in my soul
hashtag love my life hashtag successful
and that probably
gives them 100 120 likes the guys that
aren’t so fast
come home and they see that that option
that stock option is gone
and they say okay i gotta hate the
rainbow
so the first guy say carrots in my city
and i cannot see myself i still like my
city
the second guys would be like omg like
never seen rainbow before
lame they are betting
on the fact that by now enough people
have seen positive things about the
rainbow
that they’re gonna get 100 likes if they
hate the rainbows
and they probably get them but then some
of us work really hard
we come home really late the rainbow’s
gone
and we are out of luck we cannot love
the rainbow and we cannot
hate the rainbow that’s been done
everybody got 100 likes
so we do the safest thing we could
opt out of talking about the rainbow
because we’re sure we’re not going to
get 100 likes
or we could just take a safe bet
by betting against the people that bet
against the rainbow
so we’re gonna say oh my god can you
please
stop hating on people that hate rainbows
oh please i’m gonna make a motivational
vlog about why i hate bullying
and that’s gonna get a thousand likes
because this video
look at that rainbow people don’t trust
the content anymore and they don’t care
what they say they just wanna wanna say
it so that they can use it to their own
personal advantage
and we will pick on any subject and talk
about it whether it’s an
ad or a video or a song for the social
value it brings
not for the truth it speaks
we are entering the age of validation
and in the age of validation my friends
content is losing its economic value
i’m not saying it as a bad thing i’m
saying it because i’m on the front line
and i’m
it’s a reality to me let me explain
you see 10 years ago i was stealing
films
four years ago i started paying because
that was five
clicks less watching netflix is five
clicks less than torrenting a film
this year there are over eight platforms
that bid for my attention and offer me
the smallest price to
consume content and that’s just for
films and series
just imagine platforms like skillshare
just imagine platforms that have
documentaries
all sorts of content they all want me
to consume their content that they work
so hard to produce just imagine
or think of your favorite series let’s
say that series
has 12 episodes one episode is 40
minutes that’s 40 pages per episode
your favorite series has about 450
to 500 pages that someone had to think
of
and you consume it in less than one day
you binge watch in 10 hours what someone
would have to work
for a year and a half to create we
cannot keep up
with the demand so what happens when we
cannot keep up with the demand
the user comes in and he compensates the
90 percent of content we all want
that we don’t have time to produce
properly
we outsource and social media is
stepping in and taking over
i’m not saying it’s good and i’m not
saying it’s bad because there is demand
you are consuming 10 hours of content
per day half of which are probably insta
stories
that is content let’s say someone
didn’t really have to work that hard to
press the button but that is content
that will disappear in 24 hours we’re
not using it for the message
we just want to see moving images in
front of us while we’re on the subway
oh i said the bad thing everyone does
insta stories
you see in the age of validation in
order for content to be effective
it doesn’t have to give information
anymore that’s a side effect
it just needs to give validation
it’s gotten to the point and this is a
good thing
where on the internet me and you
we are equal digital citizens
all of us have one vote online
and brands also have one vote between me
and the greatest
biggest fast food company in the world
we are both equal digital citizens
that is a good thing but that also
creates some problems
see they have big budgets you don’t have
big budgets they get attention you want
attention
so what happens they’re panicked
that you’re not consuming their content
enough you are panicked then one is
seeing you
and we get into the circle when brands
start to mimic humans and humans
are acting more and more like brands
we only want to see what we like
and the problem is that we’re becoming
we’re starting to only like ourselves
see there’s a problem with brands brands
don’t like other brands
brands don’t subscribe to other brands
in their own universe they are the best
they can be and no one else exists and
we as individuals
are starting to do the same thing
perhaps without realizing it
we only want to see what we like and we
like to see us
content has become a means to an end
it’s not about another’s message anymore
it’s good if it’s there but
it’s not important it’s not about i have
something
important to say it’s about what can i
say so that i seem important
and we’re all doing it every day
we hate ads but then we go
on instagram and fake our reality at six
filters add three hashtags
tag a friend just for the gratification
not because we really had a good day or
because we really hate the subject the
content is not about information the
content is about us
we have become the content
we hate ads but we love us
you know what the problem is with this
baby
the problem is this in the world there
are probably like a million and a half
brands
i did some very superficial research
because i grew up in the internet i
don’t check my facts
there are 7.7 billion people
we are not in a world where 1.5 million
brands talk to 7.7 billion people
we’re in the world where 7.7 billion
brands plus
a million and a half professional brands
scream at each other
and cry for attention all of us
even you right here if when you came
here
you posted the picture or did a check-in
you just worked as a part-time personal
brand manager
you believe your image is worth
something you’re not sure what
you just know people are fighting over
it we are 7.7 billion
brand managers talking about ourselves
not listening to the other brands
because they are competition brands like
other brands
we’re just screaming and the problem is
my friends
there are 360 000 brands born every day
look at that baby that baby probably has
like 700 likes right now
what did you post this year what did you
accomplish that got used to 100 likes
did anyone get 700 likes in the last
year
you did what did you do ride the camo
no one i’m serious did you get
no don’t be jealous of the baby shut up
baby
don’t be jealous of the baby because he
has a problem
you see he’s already losing popularity
if you like to know why it’s because his
sonogram got a thousand likes
just by being born this baby lost 30
percent popularity
it’s only downhill from here for this
baby
by the time he’s 10 he’s gonna be ugly
by the time he’s 14 he’s gonna dress bad
he’s reached his peak as a brand it’s
gone
there’s less and less fame available
with every
person born and you know how you can
tell
rich people why do rich people insist on
being
on television i’m doing songs and being
in films
it’s because they’re rich they’re good
at investing in something that’s worth a
lot of money
there’s more and more money being
printed every day there’s less and less
fame available
with every person born
and it’s becoming more and more of a
problem the more we want more and more
content
the more we want stuff that validates us
we share articles without reading them
because we know the impact of the title
will get us
positive likes negative likes
or betting in the middle we don’t
believe what we’re saying anymore we’re
just in this
competition with each other to stay in
the game
everybody’s talking and nobody’s
listening
and that’s the problem
i believe we will soon enter an era
where instead of paying to see content
as we are now just 10 years after i told
you i was stealing it
in order instead of paying to see
content
we will end up paying to block it to not
see what others are doing
to not see what my friend mike had for
dinner
to not see films we have become so bored
with how much it takes us to google
something that they have to
do predictions they offer us
subscriptions
they ask us to follow or unfollow
they’re trying to keep us
away from what we don’t like to hear and
we don’t like to hear it because it’s
not about us
they know we don’t want to talk about
other people we just want to talk
about ourselves that is a dangerous
situation
and i’m not saying i have a solution for
it i’m just here to depress all of you
and tell you that it’s gonna happen
the i know let’s say the
the worst threat in the online community
has become i’m gonna block you
i’m so gonna block you oh you are so
black
you can go block yourself block yourself
mother blocker
and whenever you see someone saying that
you kind of have a you kind of feel it
don’t you
can i oh i wouldn’t want that to happen
why you’re not a brand
you’re not going to lose money you’re
not gonna nothing’s bad got
is gonna happen to you but you do get a
little
because deep down inside you care you
care about
not losing a potential audience member a
potential client
of you
now in this new era of
we are starting to consume content more
and more
for the fact that it’s like us or about
us
we are becoming superficial in what we
want because the main purpose is the
social one not the information one if we
want to
we can go and study online about
something
but that’s not hot anymore whatsat is
staying in the game
and i believe that we will end up
in just five to ten years
in the era few flicks where we will be
paying
not to see content but to be seen
five dollars ten dollars doesn’t matter
can i rent the front page of a website
for 10 minutes show my face
that’s worth it and if you think this is
absurd
the fact that we will only watch
ourselves or people who are better than
us at being famous
sorry to say that has already happened
this year was the year of the great
civil war
in the online world between pewdiepie
and t-series
do you know it two major channels with
more than 90 million subscribers argued
over who was more famous and we all
watched
maybe i’m old school content i’m not
saying it’s gonna go away
it’s gonna stick around probably forever
it’s just that instead of being let’s
say fifty percent of watchwatch is gonna
go down to being ten percent i’m okay
i’ll do fine
also you help me with those 100 likes on
my check-in
i’m supposed to be an influencer in my
country but i don’t post that often
i actually am a very lazy youtuber for
the last two
two years i think i’ve only done two two
episodes you know why
because i like to care about what i say
and if i don’t have something
important to say i’d rather shut up and
listen
it’s also part of my job so i prefer
not to talk about myself but i do add
everyone on facebook and i do follow
what they do and say
my final advice because again i believe
this is inevitable is
if we’re gonna do this let us at least
watch out for brands that act like
people
and most of all be afraid of people that
act like brands
and don’t become one of them
watch out and read through the lines to
see if it’s
information or validation doesn’t matter
if it’s a vlog doesn’t matter if it’s a
song
decide for yourself which of the two you
want
and a friendly advice the end
try and listen more try and shut up for
a week
try not post something have it and then
not post it
see how that goes maybe you’ll make new
friends or learn something new
because you’re busy looking at other
people for the first time
and not at yourself
and if you don’t agree with what i say
i’m gonna block you
i’m gonna block all of you i’m gonna i’m
gonna add you
and block you you can all go block
yourselves
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