As technology advances and becomes more accessible to the masses, it must be used to get voices heard while improving governance. This idea gave rise to digital democracy.

What is digital democracy?

Digital media holds immense potential to improve democracy and governance. Using digital media, the internet, and other digital technologies to improve governance on a mass scale is called digital democracy. It is bringing about quite a revolution in the world, changing the face of politics and public governance as we know it. The concept of digital democracy relies on the fundamental idea that the internet and the metaverse are democratic mediums. The metaverse  – a unique digital space where augmented reality and virtual reality come together – is helping us build a new society, one pixel at a time. Digital democracy, powered by digital technologies like blockchain, NFT, artificial intelligence, the metaverse, etc., is giving the creators’ economy a significant boost.

What is the creators’ economy?

Earlier, people would consume tons of content on television, with millions of shows being made for entertaining the masses. As the internet became readily available and Web 2.0 was born, there was a paradigm shift. People began discovering new uses of the internet and the platforms it made available to them, such as social media and video sharing. It gave people an opportunity to express themselves, share their knowledge, and connect with people who had common interests.

This was when the creator economy was born. It lets people pursue their passions and specialize in them while also making money.

The creators’ economy is the network of businesses established by millions of content creators, content curators, and online community builders. This also includes social media influencers, vloggers, bloggers, etc. The creators’ economy is fueled by the internet and advancements in digital technology, including the software and financial tools that have helped creators grow their reach and monetize their content. There are multiple platforms on which these creators publish their content, and more are regularly making their way into the market. Common new-age platforms used by creators include YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Patreon, Twitch, Substack, Discord, Clubhouse, etc. The future will see creativity become an invaluable and priceless skill among individuals. The COVID-19 lockdowns gave people a chance to re-evaluate their choices and invest in their passions and creativity. This led to an unprecedented surge in people joining the creators’ economy. It became a backup option for many, a means to pursue a second career or just specialize in something they were interested in. Many who lost their jobs or did not want to be tied down by a 9-to-5 routine found the freedom to earn by expressing themselves and pursuing their interests within this space.This is just the beginning of the rise of the creators’ economy – there is far more that is about to change. With advances in technologies like AI, AR, VR, ML, blockchain, cryptocurrencies, deep learning, neural networks, NFT art, etc., and the rise of the metaverse, even more new-age platforms are bound to rise and change the way creators publish their content and how consumers like us consume this content. This is bound to change the entire internet as we know it today.

How is the creators’ economy changing democracy?

The power is increasingly being handed to the masses – the fans, enthusiasts, audiences. The audiences are driving mass behavior by building narratives to consume and interact with. Moreover, creators are also investing in collaborating in unique ways to offer more value to the consumers spread around the globe. They often have a much higher reach than even big brands do and have more power to sway the narrative in a particular direction.We are amid a wave of digital disruption. The world around us is changing faster than we realize. The creators express their opinions, give a voice to the people, get their ideas heard, and inspire meaningful and important conversations, thereby bringing in a diversity of thoughts and ideas to this new democracy.

Digital democracy, driven by the metaverse and blockchain, gives content creators valuable opportunities to share content that is relevant for society and democracy and monetize it across different platforms.

Every Tweet, Reel, blog post, YouTube video, Discord server, Patreon discussion, and podcast episode fuels the growth of the creators’ economy and the digital democracy. Monetization of content is getting smarter, moving beyond just reach and clicks. With time, it is expected to move towards better measurement of the impact the content has. This is what makes collaboration almost indispensable. 

How is digital democracy empowering the creators’ economy?

A democracy cannot function smoothly without the availability of reliable, authoritative information. Transparency and mass awareness are extremely critical for a democracy to serve its purpose. The metaverse supports the idea of a strong digital democracy and makes it possible to have a unified structure of democratic governance. Blockchain further strengthens this by making the power structure more democratic.In today’s digital democracy, the creators play an integral role in increasing citizen awareness and improving digital literacy among the masses while driving engagement among the people. A lot of information and understanding previously incomprehensible or ignored by the people is now being actively sought by them. A simple example is how local creators inform citizens about candidates from different constituencies during elections, how to find the nearest polling booth, how to vote, etc. Modern content creators are helping people understand the different government schemes, rules, regulations, etc., that apply to them and how to avail themselves of different government services.The government itself has leaped ahead and embraced technology to a large extent. However, they would not have the relatability and level of trust that a content creator would get from their audience.

What's in store for the future of digital democracy?

The future of digital democracy lies in empowering content creators to raise awareness among the masses, hold the people in power accountable, and strengthen our democracy. The creators’ economy could make it possible to build a democratic trickle-up power structure instead of the conventional trickle-down model, giving people the power to pick up a stake in internet-native entities that facilitate better governance. This dream could be a reality, courtesy of the powerful metaverse and digital technologies like blockchain, AI, etc.