[LINK] We're Living In the Most Creative Time In History

[Kim Holburn]

http://bentobjects.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/im-just-writing-this-to-get-it-out-of.html

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> I'll start with photography and it's growth in popularity in recent years.  When I was in school studying it, I carried a camera with me an awful lot. How geeky did I have to be to do that? Very. Carrying a clunky 35mm camera around your neck at all times isn't very cool, or comfortable. But nowadays, how many people do not have a camera with them at all times thanks to their phones? And in those days, unless you were a student, or a member of some sort of club of photographers, who could you share your work with? What was the motivation for the average person to photograph anything but family, or to remember your vacation by? Who would you show it to? Now with Flickr and groups like it, it's so very easy to become part of a community to share your work, so you are motivated to make more. That's really what this is all about, I think, the ability to share. And how many people have discovered the joys of photography thanks to the ease of uploading an image to share immediately via Twitter? Lots, I would say. So many people are on the look out for something funny or beautiful to share.  Same goes for movies. Creating videos to post on Vimeo and Youtube is possible for anyone to do at a very low cost. Barriers have been removed.
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> Think about the art of writing for a minute. Think about creative, or biographical, or whatever kind of writing. Before blogging, how many people wrote any more than it took to fill the space of postcard? If it wasn't their profession, I'd say very few.  Now, it seems like everyone has had a blog at one time or another. And now "micro-blogging" is in style thanks to Twitter.  Not as many words you say? Right, but it's a different skill that people are learning. Very concise wording.  Do people want to post boring tweets? Of course not. People spend quite a few minutes of their day trying to write interesting, humorous, or informative Tweets and Facebook updates. Small bits of creativity for sure, but add them up on a weekly basis, and it's quite a bit. 
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> I think of all the craftspersons who have learned from each other on-line. Popular knitting blogs for instance have taken that old  past-time of grandma's and made it mainstream.  Before Etsy and the like, where would a person sell the scarves and hats that they made besides the occasional craft fair?  I mean, a family only needs so many scarves, and then the knitting needles were put away. Communities on the web not only serve as a place to share work and ideas, but that also serve as shops to sell your product worldwide, creating a reason to make more, and to try new, crazy ideas. Kind of incredible.

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> Now, here's when someone says- "Sure, there's a lot out there now, but most of what is created today is crap," and... I would agree. I've even said that, but there's still a lot of it that isn't. First of all, everyone starts out by making crap. But more importantly, with only a half-hearted try, a person can find many amazing things every day on the web, and thanks to the ease of sharing with others, more and more people are having a go at it.  How can this not be the most exciting time for artists, writers, musicians, or whoever wants to try something new? If you have something good to share, people will take notice! And if they don't? Try harder, or try something else.

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Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
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