It is me or are the lines being erased?

Published 12:30 pm Thursday, September 18, 2025

Few things make me feel older than the idea that "content creator" and "influencer" have become jobs.

I suppose it's really not that much different than traditional media, which has always been dependent on advertising.

But for the most part, there was a definitive line between which was which.

Print ads are separate from and look different than editorial content.

You break away from a TV show for the commercial message.

The advertising was in service to the content.

Or was it?

In the early days of radio and television, for example, it was often the content presenters who plugged the sponsor's product.

Game shows were specifically invented to sell stuff as were soap operas. 

Brand placement in motion pictures goes all the way back to the beginning of the industry.

Cartoons became toys and vice versa.

So, maybe it was symbiotic. Advertising pays for the content, the content gets eyeballs (or eardrums) on what they're selling.

The principle is the same.

And of course, there have always been those who had no qualms about blurring the lines.

Somehow, social media feels so much different, though. As if the advertising has become the content. The lines aren't blurred, they're erased.

And most of it is so inane.

Then again, the majority of stuff that has ever been produced for radio, television and the silver screen is also inane.

I guess that brings me back to the beginning.

I'm just getting old.