The Price of Going Viral: When the Pursuit of Fame Turns Reckless.

The rise of social media and content monetization have really transformed ordinary people into popular global celebrities overnight. I have witnessed content creation make people earn huge amounts of money, build a successful life and business and other opportunities they never had before they started creating content. Just one video can change a person's life drastically, either for good or for bad. Just one video can cause break through in a person's life and career.

People usually say, "Life is a pool of risk." We take risks daily as humans and even at our place of work we still take risks, so I don't have issues with those who take risks in the media for views and engagement.There's nothing in life that do not come with a risk. The question I will always ask myself when I see such videos is: whether the risks taken to achieve them are worth the reward. The media is also unpredictable. You need to consider that the potential reward is enormous, but also there are uncertainties.

Every profession or career path also has it own risk. Even athletes know that there's a possibility of injury, entrepreneurs lose money in trades and military personnel endanger their lives just to protect others. All these career paths give value to our society and accomplish goals. On the other hand, most of these risks people take to create content that adds no value to society or even helps in developing a skill. The risk most times is just for personal ambitions of gaining engagement, no value or development of skills. All I see is recklessness in most videos, no value, it doesn't even educate those watching.

In as much as that risk could give you the financial breakthrough you want, on the other hand of it, it could take your life or land you in critical conditions, that's also life changing, it even gets me more annoyed when kids are involved in such content. I see a lot of crazy content that makes me ask questions. Apart from the risk of losing their lives, some content can lead to them facing legal consequences, especially for those who go around spreading false news and pranking strangers. It could damage their reputation and build a false narrative about them, or receive, at the end of the day, only little or no attention/ engagement. It's important to check if the risk you are taking for a content is really worth it.

While chasing this career path or ambition, I believe people should take calculated risks too. I understand the benefits that come with viral videos, the brand partnership, visibility on the media, and the financial gain. I understand the drive, especially when we see people who aren't financially stable gaining financial freedom from this part. We feel motivated to also chase our own dreams, taking risk of part of humanity, but we should take calculated risks and take precaution.

The fact is, this risk doesn't favor many too. While some receive temporal recognition, some also don't receive recognition, some end up in critical conditions like injuries, legal charges, loss of finance, instead of gain. For most of them, after taking that shocking risk and headlines for a period of time, their career doesn't get perfect, they still struggle for relevance, it works for a few, not all. While making these kinds of decision for headlines and fame, it's very important to play safe and take precaution, because the worst could also happen.

Also, most of this risky content even affects the younger generations negatively, especially when they try to imitate what they watched, they also learn what they aren't supposed to learn from consuming this contents. This is a consequence that we fail to address.
They just prioritize the few over their safety, misleading others and causing risk.

In conclusion, I believe fame is temporal, the headlines you make after taking the risk are temporal, because more headlines keep coming. While seeking online attention and trends, you should also consider the consequences and weigh the consequences of such risk to you and even your audience.

I believe successful creators are those who offer values to their viewers, those who educate, inspire and educate their viewers. Lasting success in a content creation career is better than a viral moment that would be swept under the carpet and the creator would have nothing to offer again or even hurt themselves in the process of creating such content. People always follow content that creates values. A lasting success should keep people coming back for more and not just create one time attention.