No longer are the consumers of media, solely the consumer. The democratization of tools has endowed every consumer with the additional power of creator. The threshold between the two is bleeding. The consequences of this are multifold; some positive, others less so. Sure, creators that are normally overlooked, now have a chance to break past the typical impediments and gain following, but at what cost? The commercialization of the internet has made the online world a place of dual motives: platforms like Instagram and Behance offer the vast distribution of created works, but this content of individuals is free fuel for the larger conglomerates to thrive. Social media companies need posts to gain advertisers and, in effect, any user becomes a supplier for the content with no compensation. Even non-creative online assets, i.e pictures of loved ones, places, pets etc... are not just for our own consumption. These images provide key information that can be extracted through meta data and neural networks, allowing the content to be curated in such a way that exposure to new advertised pabulum is maximized. With each post that we make, we further consent to becoming targets. Our beloved posts allow the platform to persist by reducing our lives to data. The trade off is a double edged sword, but we mustn’t ignore the severity of this shift in cultural dynamics and the extreme disparity in what companies gain from users compared to the service that the user receives. For many, the appeal of posting is the potential for fame. Not only a worldwide fame, but among peers. Fame is easy to attain on the internet and the new online celebrities are pawns in the game of consumption. The entire premise of social media is to act as a tool to gain relevance in social circles. Recognition has always been a driver for ambition. Vanity is a seductive vice. But the craving for followers, likes, and shares has become a new filter through which our thoughts are strained. What pithy tweet or clever story would garner the greatest attention? This is not an attack on users of social media, but the developers who have unilateral power to retain audiences by persuasive and addictive measures. The response to this is not easy to figure out. The burden of responsibility is on the manufacturers of media corporations to reform their models. The online world is too embedded in the fabric of society and provides much needed services to just pluck it from our way of life.