Why Content is King?

The reason why content is king is because it makes us feel emotions.

And it’s all about how we feel. It’s not about how or what we think, it’s about what we feel. I have this dumb theory that, in reality:

 Feelings shape thinking.

Our brain is just a tool in the hands of our (feelings) emotions. Our passion for something transforms the way we use our thinking. Not the other way around. But at the same time, our thinking changes the way we feel in some cases.

People are hungry and content is food.

Imagine a scientist reading some new information (content) regarding a scientific theory. That content feeds his curiosity, not his brain. And curiosity is something we feel not something we think.

Imagine a person who listens to some touching biblical story (content) full of meaning and wisdom. It feeds the way he or she feels, not his hunger for meaning or wisdom. There’s no such thing as hunger for meaning or wisdom if we don’t feel it.

Content Beyond Feelings

First of all, the content beyond feelings is the content that is not understood, and by that, has no meaning. It is unreachable by our thinking, and by that, it is impossible to feel something about it because it has no meaning.

Meanings are feelings…

That’s why content is king. Because it provides meanings. Have you ever heard: you mean so much to me? Or have you ever thought about the word: meaningless? The content full of meaning is full of feeling.

Buying an iPhone with the price of 1000$ is something, but buying it at 100$ is something different. The content that presents the lower price will always have a different meaning for us.

Content is king as long as it sticks to meaning.

Content is Not King.

Meaning is king, not content. Content by itself has no value. A book is valuable for the meanings it provides, not for its content, not for the pages in which ink is spread as words. Paper and ink are valuable because they help spread meanings.

It is mistakenly said that content has quality.

Writings, photos, graphics, videos, multimedia are valuable by their meanings. These are content formats throughout which meanings are spread, and we should not consider them as valuable. We love to read books (content) because of the meanings we encounter. We love movies (content) because of their meanings. We read blog posts because of the ideas we reach.

And these ideas have meaning.

Bill Gates stated in 1996 that real money on the internet will be made around content. If we take a look at the internet today, we clearly see that content framing generates the biggest business on the internet: Google has a frame in which it presents the world’s information, Facebook has a frame in which it presents the world’s people’s profiles and opinions, Amazon&eBay have content frames in which the world’s products are presented.

All of these types of content have true/important/valuable meaning to us.

That’s why „content” is king…

Notes:

1. The original Content is King post from 1996 by Bill Gates;
2. A debate where someone presents the fact that content is king was first said in 1974;
3. There is a great debate on Quora on the difference between feelings and emotions that could be relevant to you;
4. Someone gathered a great list of words describing emotions and feelings.