Slow Content: when less is more (and better) for those who create and consume online content

What do you do at your lunchtime? I usually watch an animation while I’m eating. A colleague, through stories, said yesterday that she solved 5 different bureaucracies while reporting what she did on Instagram and eating in front of her computer. A friend told me that he takes a little time from lunch to learn French by an app. In general, everyone tries to “spend their time well” – and this “time well spent” seems to have a pattern of how it can be measured: by the number of tasks and information we can absorb, solve or produce.

It is in this context that Slow Content arises: an invitation to remember that th mass content production logic is not consistent with maintaining our health. Below, I’ll explain more about the context in which this term appears, its main pillars, and how we can improve our relationship with online content – whether for consumption or production.

Things got worse in the pandemic, but the infodemic is not from 2020

Remember when, in March 2020, the internet became a great “motivational coach”? There were posts from companies everywhere offering training courses, influencers saying how much they were reflecting to be better people and everyone was broadcasting a live video. All this without making room for us to really realize the gravity of the situation around the world with the speech that “now that I’ve gained more time, I can… (insert here something like being a better person or learning a language)”.

This phenomenon reveals how much we link, as an Information Society, the consumption and production of information (which may or may not become “content”), to a central aspect of our lives, and which we often end up taking as part of our own identity and existence. And that’s not a gen Z or millennial issue. As my research colleagues and I pointed out in the Glossary of Digital Inclusion,

In the information society, the social dynamics of interactions, work and communication are entirely permeated by dense informational flows that occupy a central position in the routine of individuals. Knowledge of information is an important substrate for civil society, companies and governments to guide their decisions.

In the last minute alone were made about 347,222 Stories and 500 hours of YouTube videos were watched around the world, according to Data Never Sleeps’ survey. And, as the name of the survey suggests, the data really never sleeps – as there are even podcasts made for those who want to sleep better while listening to something.

In this context where everything is too much, be it the amount of information or the pressure of algorithms, for those who create content, maxims arise such as posting something new whenever possible, if not every day. And in the meantime, for anyone who reads, watches or listens to content about the “FoMO” (Fear of Missing Out): the fear of losing information that, in the end, it may not even be that relevant – and that I’ve already commented on here on IRIS’ blog. In the end, this wheel turns driven by algorithms that base our relationship with content on a non-humanized perspective and the result could not be anything other than illness.

This excess of information that has made us sick – and which we cannot always call “content” – has a name: infoxication. The neologism unites “information” and “intoxication” and was created back in 1996 by Alfons Cornella to name our difficulty not only in digesting this excess of information that is offered to us but also in evaluating the quality and relevance of this information that we have contact with. According to researchers Anelise Maya, Silvia Bertagnolli, and Márcia Villarroel, the consequences of this phenomenon are worrisome as they are related to high levels of stress, contribute to anxiety, and affect important areas of life: mental and even physical health.

Slow Content: being a person who produces and consumes content requires people’s time, not algorithms’

I mentioned earlier that information is not necessarily content. And it is in this sense that I introduce the idea of Slow Content, which presents itself not only as a practice capable of helping to combat intoxication but as a need that should have been a priority for some time now: that of reassessing our relationship with content online, whether in the place of consumers, creators or both of them.

Ruth Rodriguez and Manuel Barrio, researchers at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, pointed out that the infoxication has a three-step cycle and involves all of us: first the urgency to produce information in digital media appears, which then turns into a superficial posting and with little quality that, ultimately, results in content that contributes almost nothing to your proposal considering the avalanche of information that already exists out there.

As a communication professional, I will also add another factor to this account: when it comes to marketing, content produced in this logic of volume and not quality ends up becoming highly forgettable. This type of publication fulfills the objective of making a brand strong or relevant for what it produces when we talk about sales or engagement. The American Marketing Association made an interesting survey between the years 2012 and 2016. The study found that the number of posts from marketers increased by 800% in that amount of time, but the volume of sharing of these contents decreased by 89%. From this data it is possible to infer a number of things besides a loss of quality in the content (which is not the only factor we take into account when we share something), but also that this large volume of information can make what is really important for a person difficult to be read carefully among so many posts and even less distributed by algorithms, and therefore found and shared. This is some old data, but the logic doesn’t seem to have changed much since 2016.

It is in this context – and the need for health and economy – that Slow Content appears. The term, which derives from Slow Living, preaches that quality must override quantity when it comes to creating and sharing content. Slow Content presents that the creation (and I would say also the consumption) of content must be done with purpose and take the necessary time to have quality. Thus, the result is able to generate a more positive impact on the audience and really make a difference in who consumes the content.

Beyond the speech: the main points of Slow Content

Does this information really make a difference or does it already exist in other profiles or sites in the same format? What is the most appropriate way to create this content? These concerns, typically associated with the Social Communication studies field, are part of this more human way of producing content made by people and for people (and not algorithms). Slow Content reminds us that digital communication is always social.

Among the pillars of Slow Content are some points that relate mainly to the content creation process, but which also end up reflecting on the consumption of online content:

• It’s not about talking, but about impacting: the idea is that the content is produced not with the intention to show something, but with a focus on people’s needs. A necessary question in this regard might be “how does this idea of ​​posting help those ones I want to impact?”
• Avoid excess: Creating authentic content takes research and planning, and it takes time and care. Thus, privileging several research sources beyond the first Google results (and, who knows, even physical material) makes content that may have already been produced with another perspective much more complete and capable of really making a difference in the feed – and in the life – of someone else.
• The sale gives way to transformation: the idea is not to publish something simply to inform, present your point of view or sell an idea or product. The idea is to transform a life or the way someone does something and be remembered for it – whether with a simple but effective tip or a super-produced 10-minute video.

In addition, it is worth remembering that the idea is that these guidelines do not serve as pressure when making a simple post on your personal profile, but as a reminder not to forget why we generate not only information but also content. After all, in the context of so much information, it is easy for creators and consumers of online content to charge themselves inconsistently with their health, which has been somehow normalized in the Information Society.

Do not forget: your time should really be yours

To avoid the avalanche of information from burying us, we need to pay attention to what really identifies us as people: our own time and process. Thus, proposals such as Slow Content are very necessary for the construction of a healthy information society to happen and that, in fact, the advantages of the internet and its speed in connecting people outweigh the challenges and adversities capable of making us ill.

In times of pandemics and algorithms, creating content in a longer period of time, but in the right direction, is also an act of health and, consequently, resistance.

The views and opinions expressed in this blogpost are those of the author. 
Illustration by Freepik Stories.