I have over a year of digital nomad experience behind me. Along the way, I found my own voice and my own topic. An important area where my experience and what I have to say connect.
I am at the beginning of a new journey.
This is the point in the journey where I need to think about how I will speak.
19 Tips You Should Know Before Watching 34 Thai Scams!
My voice will soon be heard. As my next step on the path of digital content production, I will also make other types of videos.
I also watch a lot of videos. On all kinds of topics. I spin not only funny videos, but also educational videos.
I watched several videos that dealt with how to avoid dangers. Because dangers would lurk around every corner. This came from the narrative. Due to my lack of experience, I was forced to accept this in advance, to imagine it. And if I imagined it, it seemed clear that I had to prepare for them.
After a year, I see things differently.
These videos do not always teach, they often work with sensational solutions to generate viewership. For example, I saved a video that I would now watch with different eyes. I did not sit down today to judge. So I won’t give you an exact link. Anyone can search for such videos and will find more in a moment.
My video came to me with the catchy title “34 scams you need to know before visiting Thailand!”. Let’s say with around 2 million views.
My original idea for the video was to take the 34 scams and look at them one by one, what I experienced, what I felt was real and what I felt was general or, in some cases, exaggerated warnings.
Then I decided that this was completely unnecessary. Some of the list in the video is really specifically “Thai scams”, while others are general tourist or big-city phenomena such as pickpocketing, overpricing, counterfeit money, phone scams, bad returns or fake investments. These could be listed in a “dangers you need to know” video in Budapest, Paris or Barcelona. Of course, they might still be important in Thailand.
This comparison makes no sense! And my writing is not about what I think is good or bad about another video.
But the main reason I rejected this video analysis is that the video played a different role in my story.
These videos show me how I don’t want to do it.
9 Tips You Should Know Before Watching 34 Thai Scams!
I could easily make a video with the title above. I would come up with the following 19 points for it:
1. Don’t believe everything you see on the internet.
2. If something is too pretty, too cheap, or too scary, think again.
3. If someone is very sure about something, they may just be very sure.
…
19. Use your common sense! If you don’t have it, borrow it from someone.
Of course, I won’t make a video like that.
How should I speak?
As you can see, I am currently shaping my own appearance and the problem outlined above is a real situation in my work.
I had to make decisions when developing the “The Miracle Is Already Here” project. “If I use music that is cool, the result will be better.” “It’s boring to hear the same music every day, so I watch your videos without sound.” Even the AI suggested things that I could do to increase the views.
Three months ago, I decided to be self-identified. For me, in this project, the important thing is to say what I think and how I think. The number of views, the number of followers is a by-product, not the goal. (In addition, the music that can be heard in my short videos has a very serious meaning in my reading.)
So, there is a conscious decision behind my appearance here.
However, with this decision, I tie my own ankle before the running race. That’s okay in a competition where I don’t want to win.
But the world of social media has its own rules that can’t be ignored indefinitely.
I won’t be able to skip everything that I – now I think – want to skip. I will also need more sonorous titles. More viral music. More comments, interactions, shares, likes and who knows what else.
The reason I thought it was important to write this post is to make myself aware that I need changes in this area, but not at all costs.
I don’t want to forget what my goal is, who I want to address and what tools I use to do this.
I would like to continue working the way I do on my blog in the future. To write about and in the way I want. The way I started working with short videos. I show what I want, with the idea that I feel like I am self-identical.
I love this journey and its difficulties. It’s like tightrope walking. I’m balancing in the air. The influencer pulls me to one side, the expressive but difficult-to-understand title to the other. “I need to make a list” tilts me to the left, the understandable two-sentence simplicity swings me to the right. “I need to show a solution” pulls me back, while I have to lean forward so as not to be didactic.
I trust that I can stay on the tightrope, so that in the process I can share my thoughts with many people.
For their benefit.
Without tricks, simply.
The influencer has a responsibility. I want to be the influencer who is aware of this! I want to approach this work in a way that makes this a behavioral and aesthetic norm for me.
I am primarily responsible for myself.
But I also have a very serious responsibility towards the receiving audience.
I think this is my influencer arse poetica at this moment.
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If you enjoyed this story, you can buy me a coffee. You don’t have to – but it means a lot and I always turn it into a new adventure.
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