The Economics of Creator Burnout: When Attention Becomes a Depleting Resource

Most people innately understand the economic concept of diminishing marginal returns: you cannot make equal gains forever.  Things are cyclical, with periods of decline following periods of growth.  Biologically, we even see diminishing marginal returns in exercise and aging - stellar athletes eventually slow down and see their strength ebb.  In contemporary language, we have many sayings that epitomize the economic law of diminishing returns, including the old adage “you’ve gotta know when to quit.”  At some point, most of us realize, rising marginal costs overcome diminishing marginal benefits from continuing any course of action.

The Creator Economy 

Today, virtually anyone can become famous if they go viral by releasing a video that takes off on social media.  The key word, however, is can - it is extremely unlikely to actually happen.  Barriers to entry are almost zero nowadays, with any teenager or adult with a smartphone able to post videos to multiple social media apps from the free WiFi of nearby businesses.  As a result, there are millions of active content creators competing for billions of viewers.  

For the most part, social media views are nonrivalrous, meaning that existing viewers do not take away from the ability of others to view.  Literally, billions of people can watch the same popular video on social media, netting the creator quick revenue.  Viewers have few limits on what they can watch and when they can watch it, creating a winner-take-all competition among prospective influencers and content creators.  A TikTok video created in Budapest, Hungary can make revenue from viewers on all seven continents.  

Reasons for Diminishing Returns in Content Creation

Random videos may go viral, but even savvy content creators struggle to make repetitive hits. Despite being online for many hours and studying the demographics of their prime viewers, even experienced content creators make many videos that are "busts" for every one that is a hit.

Unpredictability of Virality

There are so many variables affecting the mood of media-savvy demographics at any one time that it is extremely difficult for any content creator to master them.  Factors ranging from news headlines to weather patterns to the economy to other pop culture creations can substantially affect viewers’ moods, altering which videos they will swipe past versus watch in their entirety.  The algorithm of continuous-scroll social media is likely too complex for any influencer to master it entirely.  Therefore, one viral video is unlikely to be followed by a second from the same creator.

Competition is Almost Perfect

With almost no barriers to entry, many thousands of content creators can flood each viewing niche, drastically increasing the supply of each sub-genre of videos to the point that little economic profit remains.  Over time, this has inevitably caused diminishing returns for popular early creators - they now have far more competition.  Although popular creators have an advantage thanks to the algorithm, with their videos showing automatically in more feeds, the onslaught of young, motivated competition is ceaseless.

Viewer Desire for New Content

Attention is an invaluable resource for a creator, but can become self-depleting.  Once viewers have seen several videos from the same content creator, they often want something different.  Even the best content creators can become seen as repetitive by constantly-online viewers, who want to see what else is available.  Thus, later videos by the same creator are likely to have fewer and fewer viewers as social media users have moved on in search of new content.

Best Ideas Are Front-Loaded

The quality of many creators’ videos may also erode over time as they run out of ideas.  Even if the quality holds constant, many viewers may abandon a creator in search of something different.  However, the erosion of content quality due to lack of new ideas is very common and happens across all media.  In television, the term “jumping the shark” was coined to refer to the beginning of declining returns…a TV show that had left its best episodes behind.  This was often due to writers running out of interesting ideas, leading to bland and rehashed episodes.

Strategy for Content Creators: Avoid Burnout by Focusing on Long-Term Content?

The world is full of one-hit wonders, who “went viral” in various mediums and failed to release a second, comparable hit.  For content creators, there are strategic decisions to be made: pursue making viral hits, usually videos intended to be funny, or pursue making episodic content that keeps viewers coming back to learn more?

Higher Barriers to Entry

Some content creators can make sustainable revenue by releasing regular content that is part of a broader series.  Viewers tend to be loyal and watch each new video.  However, it can be difficult for creators to find areas of interest that have significant, reliable consumer demand and are not already saturated by fellow creators.  For example, social media is full of content creators for almost any interest, ranging from history to home repairs to science to cooking.  Does a budding creator have enough material that is relatively unique to attract an audience?  The need for a significant volume of material can be considered a substantial barrier to entry.

Oligopoly Market of Episodic Content

While individual attempts to make a hilarious viral video have virtually no barriers to entry, episodic content based on educating viewers is often much more difficult to make.  Relatively few content creators may have the tools and resources to set about creating entire series of videos on topics, especially if they require props and expensive equipment.  Becoming an influencer in the sphere of cooking and baking likely requires a fully-equipped kitchen and lots of consumable supplies.

Because of the high barriers to entry, long-term episodic content in each genre is much more likely to represent an oligopoly market than a perfectly competitive market.  A few standout creators dominate the market, though each must pay attention to the actions of rivals.  If one creator begins gaining popularity (i.e., viewer share) through new strategies, other creators must decide whether to adopt those same strategies to try and hold onto their viewers.  This struggle can also lead to diminishing marginal returns, as episodic content creators must constantly invest more energy into later videos to compete with rivals and maintain their market share.  The popular strategies of new rivals must be adopted or overcome, which is costly.