The Internet has Funky Priorities

I’ve been doing a bit of reading over the holidays. Mostly articles, but I promise that there was a solid book in there too.

Point being, I stumbled on quite a few different blogs—many of which were fantastic, and more that were less than sublime. What they all had in common is that the majority of them were operated by everyday people—no qualifications necessary. Just a source of opinions and well-crafted photography and text, and viola, a sounding board was created—and in some cases, an income. Two particular blogs that were notably impressive touted mothers who had successfully gathered such a following based on their diaper choices and taste in home décor that they had increased their net worth. By about a million dollars (same goes for those random people that build toys on YouTube—there’s one woman who has more followers than Katy Perry, which makes for a healthy salary, no doubt, and all she does in basically build Kinder Surprises or something).

Meanwhile, a teacher’s salary rarely tops $70,000 in Canada. Medical professionals are overworked. These are careers that require degrees and a certain level of competency. And yet, bloggers are making millions of dollars, by basically acting as salespeople. Now, on one hand, this incredible, especially given the time and energy that these people put into their online presence. Way to be industrious! On the other hand, it’s sort of tragic for those people who train in a field for years, only to be run ragged for an income that definitely doesn’t total a million dollars. So where’s the balance?