Content Creation

this is a real garden

“Content creation” is a big deal these days. You consume content all day long online: articles, listicles, memes … it’s everywhere.

And someone has to make it. And so someone is making money off of it.

Many people, actually.

Anyway, as someone who is a content creator, at least occasionally, I’ve been thinking … there are really two kinds of content.

There’s the content that we create content about.

And then there’s the content that is just itself.

The first kind might be a review of a movie.

The second kind is the movie itself.


And of course, every kind of human creation is derivative in some sense, simply because we are ourselves created beings, and so there's no creation ex nihilo from us ... but still ...

Have you ever run into content that’s about content that’s about content?  I have.

Sometimes I’ll listen to a business podcast and think, “How do you actually make any money? You are making money by talking about how you make money by teaching people how to make money.”

It just gets a little recursive.

I get that some of that is expected, and some of it is even helpful. Yes, you can be a speaker who speaks about speaking. Because surely professional speakers sometimes like hearing someone speak about their own profession.

But it can get a bit ridiculous.

Anyway, where I ended up in my own recursive circle of thoughts was to ask myself: What do I do in my life that is REAL CONTENT? That’s not writing about writing about writing? (Because, um, yes. I do that.)

And here are the first things that come to mind (not in any kind of order):

            -I write fiction. My novels and short stories? Are not writing about writing. They’re just the original stories themselves.

            -I cook. Real meals. That my family really eats.

            -I mother (and have other real relationships, in meatspace. Talking with real people using real words that actually vibrate the real air molecules).

            -I worship. The real Lord. The Creator we all are imitating, in our little tiny self-spun worlds of content creation.

            -I edit. (Yes, this is working on someone else’s work. But it’s making a real difference, just as someone who sands and varnishes a piece of wooden furniture is making a real difference.)

            -I knit. Actual finished objects come off of my needles!

What about you? Do you ever feel like you’re consuming content that’s about content that’s about content? Ever just toss it all in favor of throwing around a football outside?  :D


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell