I’ve noticed this for years. Articles, graphics, content, all telling you how to do incredibly simple things that most people could figure out if they just thought about it for a second.

Pinterest is chock full of guides about how to have a friend over for dinner, legions of mindless tips and tricks on how to style a side table, as exceedingly general interior design advice is actually applicable in everyone’s home, never ending content on how to do basic, simple things that started to make me wonder are we all just so utterly anxious we need permission from a content mill on the internet in order to accomplish anything?

I love to be prepared. Probably more than the average person. But seeing catchy titles about “Things I Wish I Knew Before I Did X,” “The Only Guide to X You’ll Ever Need,” or “Don’t Even Think About Doing X Before You Read This!” become so prominent, it makes me wonder what exactly we are supposed to be accomplishing here.

When I first started seeing content like this, I thought, maybe this is for young people, just finding their way in the world. Maybe it’s for those who are neurodivergent or extremely anxious who would benefit from having everything clearly laid out.

But seeing as I was once part of a content mill myself, I’m pretty sure what this actually is: mindless content slop throw into the pit of the algorithm in hopes to get an account noticed.

The volume of posts like this testify this is getting creators and brands the results they want. Otherwise, there would be no reason to continually churn out these extremely basic instructions. But I also think there are some other contributing factors.

We all need permission: When I was 24 and had recently gotten engaged, I joined a wedding forum so I could learn all I could about wedding planning. I was shocked at how many women would post asking for opinions on literally everything. They wanted someone to validate their choices on wedding aspects that were so personal it really shouldn’t have been up to anyone else but them. They wanted to know if it was okay not spend a year’s rent on their wedding, if people would talk badly about them if they didn’t include every single family member in their bridal party, they wanted a stranger on the internet to help them choose their wedding dress, so on, so forth.

So many women were terrified of not pleasing everyone around them or making a “bad” decision or being deemed tacky on what they termed as the most important day of their lives. Are we so terrified of… everything that strangers with profile photos of wedding cakes are the ones who should be guiding us?

We all need something easy to write: When it comes to churning out enough content to catch the end of your average user, it can get… taxing. I speak from personal experience. Writing a blog about exceedingly basic etiquette or thoughts on how to write the perfect message in a greeting card for a baby shower, is a pretty simple task.

Feeling burned out from trying to feed the void? Pen 500 words on how to do something so simple you don’t need to think at all! True, it’s going to be up against dozens of other people who are writing about the same exactly topic, but that’s why we have SEO, am I right?

We don’t want to think: This is probably the saddest thing I realized when thinking about this topic. The prevalence of this content and well, everything else going on in the country right now, makes me wonder if everyone consuming articles like this are really just trying to avoid thinking through what arm chair would work best in your living room or host a taco bar.

These aren’t complicated topics. Also, if you miss one element of the greeting card outlined above, there are literally no consequences. Besides, after you write one exceedingly perfect card according to these standards, what happens if you run into another guide to cards that has different steps or have them in a different order?

Even in low-stakes situations there are entirely too many guides telling you this is the proper way, the right way, the way anyone can use (even if that’s not true). So don’t think about it, don’t even worry. Someone on the internet is here to tell you everything you need to do the right way so you don’t have to think about all these hard things.

It’s normal to want to get opinions on situations you’re going through. Especially if this is your first time going through it. It’s normal to want to research doing something to see what other people have done or gather ideas to meld into your own creation. But do we really need exact guidelines for literally everything, even when there are absolutely no stakes?

I vote no. But then again, I’m just a random person with opinions on the internet.