Inflation is rampant on Social Media

On social media, 6,000 is just north of nothing. TikTok users can’t even join the Creator Rewards Program until they have 10k followers. On Instagram, follower counts are displayed as an exact number until they surpass 10k. To make another real world connection, that’s a few hundred more than the capacity of Red Rocks Amphitheatre, which is 9,525.

The point of these figures is to show how skewed our perspective of “a social following” has become. In the 20+ year history of social media, the quantitative goal post of influence has only ever been pushed back. Unfortunately for everyone trying to kick that field goal, growing a social following hasn’t become more accessible. I’m not saying that social growth is “too hard” or “impossible,” I’m saying it’s not accessible. Why is that? Because of inflation.