You’ll soon learn why I’m posting shorter, but more frequent posts…In the mean time, I wanted to share with you something I’ve been thinking quite a bit about these days.
Think about the generation or two before us. A significant portion of free time was spent consuming media. From print to broadcast, everyday people simply digested information and content presented to them. But then, everything changed. We were gifted with the ability to share what we think, feel, and experience, on demand. The democratization of information was finally upon us and we the people would ensure that our voices would be heard and felt. This was our time, quite literally as Time Magazine named “us” as the person of the year.
You control the Information Age. Welcome to your world…
There was and is something missing however. It takes a dedicated investment and orchestrated movement to control the information age. Without it, we’re contributing to social distortion, a regime governed by information overload that threatens social anarchy. Just because we have the ability to say something, doesn’t mean it matters to our greater society, nor does it resonate. Even in the face of this new democracy of social media, the majority of “the social” are merely consuming content – 68% of all socialites according to Forrester simply listen, never saying or producing anything.
And while it’s not the same as generations before us, I wonder if we’re moving towards an era of consumption again, just under a new facade.
In all honesty, the long form of content creation is under constant scrutiny and its value is continually questioned. Blogs are seemingly losing favor to the statusphere in the rise of a Web that promotes curation and micro-sized content without true context. Minimalist self-expression masquerades as a new information economy and I think we have yet to show what we’re capable of contributing or truly changing.
You might disagree with me, but shortly after the iPad was released, I sold it. Why? Well, it wasn’t because I didn’t love it. I found myself thoroughly enjoying the ability to consume content in a very interactive manner that fooled me into thinking I was creating even though I was simply curating and sharing. To counter the sensation, I purchased a keyboard and a stand. They had me believing , but then I did the math. There’s more money in consumption than creation. And, that’s when I realized I was simply trying to justify it as a tool for consumption AND creation. Truth is that it’s a beautiful tool for content consumption and curation. But, I challenge you to create at least equal to you what you consume…or at least more than you do today.
Who are you?
What about you that some adore that we all need to experience?
What can you teach us?
I believe in order for the social economy to thrive, it must balance creation and consumption.
Additionally, we must invest in the social economy by demonstrating literacy and our ability to take what we learn and share our insights with those populating our coveted digital societies.
In the process we’ll find that the balance is refined to the delicate, yet invaluable ecology of learning and teaching.
What do you think? What are you observing?
This is your time…
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Just putting it out there, now that it is so easy to share. Can we have Consumers, Creators and Curators? Curators being people who sort through and share – repost – good content, they have consumed?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts in this consumer demands created by manuplating the demand for consumption. YouTube.com is a fine example for all our fears as everyone is standing in front their content and thinking their akward images of doing absolutely nothing but making stupid faces and talk muck … means creative content … thanks to YouTube’s welcoming anything and everything in the name of democracy for individualized expression. Everyone feels their own image makes them the expert to say and do what they want. Let’s concentrate on creating and sharing unique ideas that can transcend towards learning – whether it be the stupid face on YouTube whose greatest desire is to be simply seen and heard … with no a clue in the head that there is something we are all learning … even through the misguidedness of stupidity …
Depends how one defines “create” – does adding commentary onto news pieces or blogposts or opinon pieces create content? I would suggest it does. On Twitter, I don’t think simply posting a piece’s title and the link is enough – what do you think about it? Why is it relevant? and so on.
This post triggers thoughts. I personally mostly see myself as a “heavy” cunsumer and learner in the social economy, in one sense. If I am to be compared with social media “gurus” or experts such as yourself, and many of those I follow on Twitter, I am definately a learner. I find it extremely useful to follow people who have the time to sort and scan and share interesting posts and thoughts. But in another sense I am definately a creator, and that is that I take what I learn, both from others and from my own experiences when testing things, and adapt these learnings into the online channels I am responsible for in my work. And, internally in the company I then become an expert in the organization when I share my experiences and learnings, in a way teaching. But this said, taking the step from here to formulating my own ideas into posts on my blog or Twitter so that they would be open for anyone to criticize is a different thing. I have ideas and thoughts and I do create, but in comparison to established well formulated sources I tend to not allowing myself just to elaborate those thoughts in public. Though i guess since many people would not notice my ideas since my audience is small (minimal :)) I should allow myself to create even more. This is something I believe that many other “non-creators” share; being at the edge of a pool of well respected experts who all seem to “know” and follow eachother, but not taking the step into the discussion, with fear of saying the “wrong ” thing. Thought the discussion would probably benefit. Thanks anyway for sharing your thougts.