Key Takeaways
- X will now pay its creators for engagements from other Premium users.
- Users have spoken out against the update, claiming it isn’t fair to free users.
- X’s new earn-by-engagement model is arguably exacerbating social media’s decline from real human relationships.
Elon Musk’s social media platform X will now pay creators for the amount of engagement they get from paying Premium users.
First conceived as a way to stay connected with friends and family, financial incentives on social media have driven transactional relationships – with X’s new earn-by-engagement model planning to capitalize on this.
X Users Paid To Engage
The new update to X’s Creator Revenue Sharing has been heralded by the company as its biggest one yet.
On Oct. 9, X announced it would be sharing ad revenue with its creators last year based on how many verified users saw advertisements in their posts.
This new update promises payouts to creators based purely on their engagement.
“Payouts are increasing and you’ll now be paid based on engagement with your content from Premium users – not ads in replies,” X said in an update. “So, when your followers subscribe to X Premium and engage with your content, they support you directly.”
The social media platform urged that only engagement from real accounts subscribed to Premium will count towards a creator’s earnings.
Users on X have spoken out against the update, claiming it is another attempt from Musk to push out free users of the platform. Others have likened the new incentive to a Ponzi scheme.
James Ball, political editor at The New European, wrote: “It’s finally happened: Elon has turned Twitter into a get-rich-quick pyramid scheme.
“This also further reduces the value of free users on ‘X’, which feels like Elon is psyching himself up once again for another go at eliminating free users.”
Social Media Is Killing Connection
Social media has undeniably transformed the way we interact and communicate with the world, but some believe its immense presence has begun to erode the quality of human connection – fostering superficiality and detachment over real relationships.
Richard Stone, founder of U.K. technology agency Stone Junction said that X’s new engagement based revenue-sharing model highlights social media’s shift towards transactional relationships.
“By incentivising engagement through financial rewards, [X] diminishes the authenticity of interactions. Just as it did when it allowed abusive profiles to be reinstated on the platform, and just as it did when it made the credibility of the blue tick something you could rent for ten dollars a month.”
Half of Gen Z Wishes X Didn’t Exist
This could be what led half of Gen Z to wish Snapchat (43%), TikTok (47%), X (50%) never existed in the first place, according to a new study from The Harris Poll.
Despite statistics claiming the young generation spends over four hours a day browsing social media, just under half (43%) of users in the survey said they associated the term social media with isolation.
Psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt, who teamed up with the Harris Poll for its survey, said to The New York Times : “We interpret these low numbers as indicating that Gen Z does not heavily regret the basic communication, storytelling and information-seeking functions of the internet.
“If smartphones merely let people text each other, watch movies and search for helpful information or interesting videos (without personalized recommendation algorithms intended to hook users), there would be far less regret and resentment.”
However, Tom Stone, co-founder of React, a social and influencer agency, said that it was unfair to say that all social media doesn’t foster genuine connections, but believes X is currently exacerbating this perception.
“By financially incentivising connections, X risks reducing interactions to a transactional nature, where users engage primarily for monetary gain, rather than genuine interest or shared values,” Stone said.
“On other platforms, we do see thriving communities built on real engagement, where followers are invested in the brands or individuals they support,” Stone added. “However, X’s strategy feels detached from this principle, prioritising superficial engagement metrics over real user experience.”
It is not currently clear if X’s new creator fund will address concerns that has been raised by creators – but it is likely to place increased focus on how important user’s view real connection online.
Kurt Robson is a London-based reporter at CCN, specialising in the fast-moving worlds of crypto and emerging technology. He began his career covering local news in Cornwall after graduating from Falmouth University with First Class Honours in Journalism. There, he cut his teeth on everything from council meetings to missing swans.
He quickly rose through the ranks to become a frontline journalist at several of the UK’s leading national newspapers. Over the years, he has interviewed musicians and celebrities, reported from courtrooms and crime scenes, and secured multiple front-page exclusives.
Following the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kurt shifted his focus to technology journalism—just ahead of the AI boom. With a natural curiosity and a trained eye for emerging trends, he has found a new rhythm in reporting on innovation.
At CCN, Kurt's work focuses on the cutting edge of crypto, blockchain, AI, and the evolving digital world. Drawing on his background in people-first reporting and his deep interest in disruptive tech, Kurt delivers stories that are insightful, entertaining, and human-centric.
