While online content creation has changed the way people work forever, it’s having an increasingly negative impact on creators' mental health, a new study has found.
Content creators have shaped the online marketing world and the internet as a whole. However, uncertainty and job insecurity can have devastating effects on their mental health.
In these roles, content creators, particularly those who work for themselves, often lose out on benefits that create a sense of security.
A study from Creators 4 Mental Health in collaboration with Lupiani Insights and Strategies has revealed that content creators are increasingly encountering mental health crises.
This benchmark study specifically engaged North American content creators by interviewing 14 participants.
With help from Lupiani Insights and Strategies, the organization put out an online survey, which included over 540 participants.
The findings show that content creators have significant struggles with mental health, with 1 in 10 people saying they struggled with suicidal ideation.
The main stressors experienced by content creators are financial stress, with the majority of people saying that this is what causes the most agony.
This could be due to algorithmic volatility, about which participants of the study have said: “There’s no warning. One day, your views drop by 80%, and you’re left wondering what you did wrong.”
Another stressor that stokes the fires of poor mental health is content performance and creators' obsessions with statistics.
Sixty-five percent of participants said that their obsession with statistics as a result of their work contributed to poor mental health. The third highest (62%) stressor is burnout, where people overwork themselves.
However, despite experiencing financial stress, content performance obsession, and burnout, 89% of participants don’t have access to adequate mental health support.
Furthermore, content creators, particularly those who work freelance, don’t have access to communities where they can share the struggles of content creation.
A large majority of content creators (61% to 66%) have never been part of a community, nor have they attended conferences where they can engage with other content creators.
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When it comes to social media platforms, only one in five people says they trust the social media platform on which they publish.
Furthermore, the frequent algorithmic changes inspire fear in content creators as they never know when it’ll change and how it will impact their work.
One thing that may be aiding content creators is AI, as two in three content creators have used it and found it helpful.
However, “creators see AI as a helpful tool, but express concern about its impact on intellectual property, representation, and fairness – particularly among those with lower well-being scores,” Creators 4 Mental Health said.
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