Identity Anchor

When you meet someone new at the bar or online, within the first two minutes, people will anchor their identity based on a tribal construct.

For most people in their 30’s +, they’ll use their nationality as their identity anchor. I’m “American,” “Irish,” “Argentinian,” “Korean-American.”

Identity anchors are useful because it immediately conveys many aspects about the person including their values, virtues, environment in which they grew up, etc.

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National identity is the dominant identity anchor today, but it hasn’t always been that way. People used to anchor their identities based on their religious beliefs, and before that, their blood and surname.

Paradigm shift

Increasingly today, especially with younger generations, people are starting to anchor their identity based on the content creator they follow. When one describes how they follow Andrew Tate, Joe Rogan, or Kim Kardashian, it doesn't just mean they spend time watching their content. It means they share values or beliefs with their content creators whether it's masculinity, perspective on vaccines, or fashion.

This trend is just getting started, and we're at an inflection point of a monumental cultural shift that occurs centuries or millenia apart.

Attention Economy

The Internet shifted attention from billboards and television to online advertisement. Social media is shifting attention from online advertisement to content creators.

Phase 1: fb/google made it so anyone can advertise like the brands

Phase 2: Influencers used social platforms to capture way more attention than brands could through advertisement. People got tired of online ads and efficacy fell.

Phase 3 (now). Content Creators capture attention most effectively. Authenticity sells.

Disruption

The reason content creators are so disruptive is because it inverts the attention equation.

Consider Mr Beast who's outselling Hersheys:

• Mr Beast gets paid to capture attention and direct it to his chocolate bar.
• Hersheys has to pay for advertisement to capture attention.

This is fundamentally very disruptive, and as a result, content creators will systematically disrupt brands in every category starting with the easiest (CPG) and moving to harder products including education, communities, and crypto.

March 18, 2024