Too many consumers, too few creators.

There is a big imbalance on social media and it’s leading to overpresentation of people who aren’t like us.

There are way too many American content creators online. And amongst them, way too many are young white males.

Scanning through lists of the biggest influencers with the biggest followings is like reading a menu at a sausage restaurant. Nothing but sausage.

And when there’s too much of any one thing dominating any part of the internet, things are not going to be good for us.

This was theme of a 5-minute talk I gave at Tennant Creek to about 200 students at the end of October Business Month.

While talking about my three big secrets that I held close to me all my life, I talked about how I now talk about them online, particularly, where anyone who may be going through the same fears might find a voice that speaks directly to them and encourages them to know that they are not alone.

But the overall message I wanted to bring them, was that the best way to engage with social media is to not sit there and scroll endlessly through videos, but to create the videos themselves.

And that’s because there’s too many faces and voices online that don’t look like theirs. And the only stories that are reaching the world about remote areas of the Northern Territory are not good ones.

You can’t be what you can’t see.

This is the behind-the-scenes reason for why I gave that message.

You won’t be inspired to do something new until you see someone you relate to doing that thing as well.

Michael Jordan, probably the greatest ever professional basketball player inspired a generation of under-privileged kids in rough areas of US cities to take up basketball, leading the way for future champions like Kobe Bryant, Steph Curry and LeBron James.

As Africa’s first democratically-elected woman president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf led Liberia through reconciliation and recovery following a decade-long civil war and responded to the Ebola Crisis of 2014–2015. And while what she achieved was remarkable, it was the affect it had on inspiring women after her to take on politics that was her lasting legacy,

Central Australia is more known for TikToks on ram raids, filming fights and “post and boast” style content.

I think that the voices of Central Australia can be more than that when the kids that are living ordinary lives in this unique part of the world start sharing their lives and stories — within safety and cultural limitations, of course.

And this is where both teachers and community educators can come in.

There’s a lot of voices not being represented adequately online.

It’s not just young people in Tennant Creek that aren’t being adequately seen online.

There aren’t enough middle-aged and older women sharing their wisdom and learnings online either. The reasons are complex and I won’t pretend to understand them, but their voices are simply not being represented.

And despite there being a wealth of old men in powerful political positions in this world, it’s only a few of them who have access to endless media opportunities that are getting their voices heard.

There are some voices that are over-represented online though. The scammers and spammers, network marketers recruiting people in to their schemes, and mindset coaches who show us nothing of their lives other than perfect photos of themselves and no mention of the struggles they’ve overcome — just platitudes about how to live lives of abundance.

The true scale of the creator / consumer divide online.

Estimates indicate that less than 40% of people on Facebook post on Faceook.

Less than 30% of people on Instagram post on Instagram.

Less than 5% of people on TikTok post on TikTok.

Less than 1% of people in LinkedIn post on LinkedIn.

It’s staggering to see these figures.

It feels like there is endless content coming through from billions of people, but there’s not. There is actually a shortage of content for just about all sub categories or work, business and lifestyle.

I consume a lot of content about Star Trek on YouTube, and I am regularly running out of new, interesting content to watch. I’m certain that this is the same across all our interests — apart from people talking about their latest life-changing network marketing opportunity, of course.

The reality of social media is that a very small group of very prolific creators are providing all the content for the world’s biggest media platform that is larger than TV, radio and print, combined.

But the difference is that these creators aren’t all multi-billion dollar corporations with London or New York head offices. They are people creating content from home or their office in their spare time.

They are people just like you and I who are sharing what they know (and sometimes what they don’t know) to an audience that could be anywhere. And that audience is constantly hungry for more content about the things that interest them.

And there is a world of interests to get into.

Even the things you are most interested in.

Like I said to the kids in Tennant Creek, people keep telling you that social media is bad because all they see is you hunched over your phone watching TikTok for hours and hours.

But that’s only one half of social media.

The other half is the social media that you make.

And that’s the best kind of social media of all.