I Tried Shitposting for A Week, And Here's What I Learned
I Tried Shitposting for A Week, And Here's What I Learned
Shitposting has never been so educational.
For starters, what exactly is ‘shitposting’? From Urban Dictionary, it is defined as:
1. (noun) any content on the internet whose humor derives from its surreal nature and/or its lack of clear context. Differs from a meme: whereas a meme's humor comes from its repeatability, a shitpost is funny simply because it isn't a predictable repetition of an existing form. Shitposts can become memes, but memes cannot become shitposts.
From here, we could say that memers are people who make memes with humour in mind, while shitposters has no aim in mind but to exploit the absurd nature of internet content.
The question is, how could posting content without any purpose, context or meaning could teach us about the internet? Well, here’s some lessons I learned as a shitposter for one week.
1. You Get Those Sweet Sweet Dopamine
Started out from exactly 7 days ago today, the Malaysian government has just announced the indefinite extension of the dreaded lockdown which has been going on for over 16 months. Out of frustration that I would have to spend another 3-4 months at home without any income, I decided to make some memes to mock the Malaysian Prime Minister over his incompetency in handling the situation.
Without any experience in using Photoshop, I opened up YouTube, and learned how to warp a person’s face. I also learned how to cut and paste a few words and voila! I got myself a first shitpost.
At first, I found it funny, but I have nobody else to share the fun. And so I decided to post it on a Reddit forum, r/Malaysia. And so that was it for the day, I think. Anger vented out, and haha jokes on the government.
The next day when I woke up, I woke up to my phone blasted with a wall of notifications on Reddit, with over 400 upvotes on the post. And that was it, boom, the sweet sweet dopamine from social gratification flooded my brain, and that was the moment I decided to become a shitposter. I say to myself, it’s time to get shitty.
2. You Could Actually Learn Editing Instantly
Prior to making memes, I had a few moments of inspiration to learn Adobe Photoshop as it was one of the most important life skills that could make you some extra money. However, I was always defeated at the first step from the tutorial videos. It was simply too much, too basic, and time consuming to follow up. You would be taught to draw a circle, create a layer, etc. It was simply too boring and I was always too bored to follow up after the first tutorial video on YouTube.
This all changed when I started making memes. I had a purpose in mind. I wanted to warp the prime minister’s face, I wanted to swap faces between Xi Jin Ping and Shrek. With a purpose in mind, I could easily look for videos that directly teaches you how to perform the specific function, such as swapping face:
And there was it, a mash up of Xi and Shrek. It was short, instant and easy to follow up. Plus, I have something to work on, which eliminates the boredom in exchange for self gratification when the meme was done.
One thing leads to another, and hence I find Photoshop to be less intimidating, and more of a fun tool to work on.
To sharpen my skills and see how things go, I figure to make it as a routine by making a meme everyday. And from there I started out my career as an amateur shitposter.
3. You’ll Learn A Lot About Community Building
As I mentioned, the first step is often the hardest to take and doing something without a purpose leads to a lost sense of direction (exactly what shitposters do, and that’s the point anyway). To first start a blog, a page or even a channel, the audience is the one that are the hardest to be captured and identified, even if you know what type of content to create.
What shitposting helps is, they could quickly assemble a community of people who love to consume your ideas and content. The truth is, nobody wants to read a long ass blog with words (exactly what i’m doing), and they long for something quick and easy while taking their time off on social media. Shitposting materials are short, easy to consume and its entertaining. It’s low quality and relatively easy to be shared among friends thus the increased impression rate than blogs and articles.
When I started out seeking ways to post my creation, I have to scout through reddit, to find out the right community to share it. The first one was easy, as it surrounds the anger on the Malaysian government, hence I posted it on the Malaysian subreddit and it accurately reached the target audience, Malaysians.
The following ones, are not that easy. I had to browse through 30 different Reddit communities, reading the posting rules, to get my Xi-Shrek posted out. Oh, about the community rules and guidelines. Reddit is the best place to manage a community. It has built in and customisable bots which are able to automatically moderate your community, remove posts as well as set certain rules to maintain the quality of your community.
Through the process, I learned the rules and norms, as well as the commonly used ‘keywords’ in each of the community. These ‘keywords’ are very important for bloggers and content creators as they would help SEO in many ways. Thus, through creating memes and shitposting, it helps creators in identifying their target audience and SEO keywords in a fast and efficient way. This would then help in the building of a loyal community which would be happy to read your content.
4. You Could Boost Your Social Media Presence
Social media is everywhere, everyone uses it and every brand has a page on it. The first step in building your personal brand, is the hardest. You need friends from your primary social circle to help you share it out, and that might become pushy when it’s in a form of blog. Hey, I won’t help my friends share a blog that says ‘10 ways to make a blob fish smile’. This all changes when it’s about memes. It’s a genuinely funny, absurd and entertaining stuff to be shared around. Plus, you don’t need to ask your friend to share a meme you made, they are dying to share it out!
Though its a cheap and easy way to grow an audience and be viral, shitposts are still relatively low effort materials and people would not grow loyal on your personal brand (unless your personal brand is making memes). To be a content creator, you would still need to make high quality reading materials which people who really seek for it are willing to pay to see it. This is why i’m sharing out this article, I might have been a part time blogger and full time shitposter, who knows. hehe
Anyway, it if done right, shitposting could help grow your social media followers fast, while telling you which platform is the right one. I tried diversifying my social media presence by posting it on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and Instagram.
For those of you who are not familiar with the workings of either of the 4 platforms, shit posting teaches you alot on how to play along with the mechanics they offer. Facebook has higher reach and vitality with poor moderation tools, while Instagram are more visual focused and Twitter, the one unpopular with memes (for my memes).
5. You Learn To Have Fun
Life is short and all work and no play makes everyone a dull boy. Shitposting is fun, nobody judges you and you get to make people happy. Which, they all transform into that sweet sweet dopamine through the likes and shares and upvotes and retweets, etc.
When I started out shitposting, I wanted to vent my anger, to mock people that annoys me. This turn into my daily hobby and a way of expressing myself. I get to create whatever I want, and Shrek could become anyone I want him to be. Shitposting is alot of fun, people wouldn’t get the chance to laugh at your memes because a meme is a meme and the lack of humour itself is also the joke on its own.
If your life is stressful, you never see the end of the light, please, please. Start shitposting. Shitposting is fun, trust me.
I learned to enjoy a low stress day job, while spending the extra time I get on creating content I want. That is something I wouldn’t trade for a million dollars. Till then, see ya around and happy shitposting :)
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