I found this draft post from 2013, I’ve decided to publish it now for no other reason but to get it out there. It may not be well worded, or well thought out. But hey, it’s there.
We are a lost generation. We don’t know how to act or behave in the world. We are making it up as we go along and pretending that everything is okay. It’s not.
Frank Chimero wrote that there are not truly “Independent Creators”. He is absolutely correct. He states that creations must be upheld, discussed, and distributed by the public in order to live. That public then becomes the life blood of your own creation. Therefore, when you put a creation out into the world, you are no longer in charge of that creation and no longer an “Independent Creator”.
Louis CK has been heralded recently for claiming that smartphones are making us less empathic and are teaching us that it’s easy to be mean to other people without repercussions.
Other people are been rallying around internet bullying, cybercrime, and the likes. I’m hear to tell you that it’s all connected. We are not alone in creating things, and we are becoming less empathetic. Yes both arguments have nuances that I am subverting, and those should be talked about. But in a general sense both Frank and Louis are right. Technology has enabled a global community, one we have never experienced before. With a community that large it has become easy to avoid the guilt and “bad feeling” of calling someone “fat”. It’s easy to hide behind the masses when you do something against someone else. But it’s just as easy to forget that the masses help carry you and your work. Those same people that you hide behind, and perhaps those that you call fat, allow your work, your creation, to live and breathe in the world. Without them you work would die the moment you set it free. That’s the world we have to face. We are all inextricably connected now. We could go back, but we won’t. That connection gives us so so much, and we don’t want to live without it. But that connection to such a global audience and community comes at a cost as well. We need to see that cost for what it is, and learn how to deal with the consequences. Yes, we will probably create more bullies, but that is just because we give them more places to hide. In the same manner we are able to give more life to creative people who want to put things into the world for the better. We, as a new global community, have a responsibility to both. We have to uphold the greater good, and learn how to put down the evil as best we can. It’s a brave new world out there, but we have the chance to make it better, and better we will make it.
Image by Tom Coates on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/plasticbag/4974137718/
