Where to Share? A Systematic Investigation of Creative Behavior on Online Platforms

Digitalization, underpinned by the ongoing pandemic, has transferred many of our everyday activities to online places. In this study, we wanted to find out what online outlets people use to share their creative work and why they do it. We found that most people posted creative work online at least a few times per year. They especially shared creative content related to creative cooking, visual art, and literature but hardly related to performing art. YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram were the three platforms with the highest familiarity and usage rates; among these, YouTube was most strongly used passively (i.e., to view creative content), while Instagram was most strongly used actively (i.e., to post one’s own creative content). We could further differentiate platforms that were domain-specific (e.g., Stackoverflow for scientific/technological creativity) from platforms that offer a broader variety of creative content (e.g., Reddit, Blogger). The reasoning behind posting one’s creative work online resembled a mixture of technological facilitation, alongside heightened accessibility that allows for feedback and bringing pleasure to one’s followers and friends. All in all, this study provides a first overview of where and why people share their creative products online, shedding light on timely forms of creative expression.