We Live in Public
Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 09:22AM WARNING. Video contains some nudity and offensive language.
Last night I attended the Chicago premier of a new documentary Titled "We Live in Public." The film covers one of the greatest dot.com entrepreneurs of our generation, but one many of us have never heard of (myself included). Josh Harris was a pioneer in the online space and was one of the first to power many of the tools we use today. I won't go into his full bio as you can get that elsewhere. (Side note: Josh was at the theatre last night which was quite a surreal experience.) First I suggest checking out the trailer below. Afterwards, a few questions worth discussing...
Are we losing a part of ourselves because of the web?
After the film ended, Director Ondi Timoner addressed the audience and asked the following question, "are we losing our individuality and creativity through the internet?" We have social profiles that can tell others what our favorite bands, books, and foods are, but these are all categories that live inside predetermined boxes. Is this format truly one that allows us to express our creativity? Are we feeding information into the cloud thinking that it is an expression of our beliefs but in reality is being farmed by marketing companies trying to sell us things we won't be able to resist?
This question was a tough one to think about. After all, I have a fairly extensive digital footprint and have invested a large chunk of time into making that happen. On one hand, blogging to me, is not any different than offline forms of creativity. I can paint, write, record, in both world. The difference being that one has the potential to live forever on the web and the alternative is relatively private.
This concept then brought me to the next observation, having eyes on our work will effect our psychology and thus our creativity. I accept this to be true, however the more difficult debate then is, does this change our creativity for the better or for the worse? Almost every character I type or pixel I create for the purpose of publishing on the web is something that goes through a mental scrubbing. A process of my brain trying to anticipate what others will think of what I'm creating and then catering it to making them happy, to keep them appeased, or to rile them up to argue with me. Some might argue that by building things on the web you're forced to explore topics that you might never pursue on your own, others might say it curbs your imagination and walls you into the expectations of others.
I don't have an answer and this is going to require a lot more thinking on my part, but what I do know is that I want to pledge more time to creating things for myself. I'm currently in the mindset of, if I'm going to spend my time making something, I better make it digital and viewable because otherwise, what value does it have? I've come to a place where the value of my work is judged by the opinion and eyeballs of others. That if I draw a picture or write a blog post and after publishing it gets no hits, that the work I've done is somehow poor. This mindset is one that I fear would derail me in the future from creating something that would give me an incredible sense of pride and happiness. As that is something I never want to happen, I'm going to attempt to augment my forms of creative expression. Don't worry, I'm not going to drop off the grid or anything, but thanks to the thoughts provoked by this movie, I am going to try to do more things that none of you will see.
Reader Comments (2)
Pro: Established artists like Julia Cameron, (The Artist's Way) and Twyla Tharp say that people need creative outlets. They say that it's when artists bottle up their ideas, and don't get them out, that they begin to feel depressed (or worse). So, creative outlets at your fingertips could ENHANCE creativity. I know it does for me.
Con: Child development experts, as well as artists like Julia Cameron, say it's important to "unplug." Get off the grid. Give yourself time to refresh without the stimulation of ANY media. If you don't, you may not be able to see through the distractions of the Web. Your thinking won't have the quality it would had you given yourself a break.
Well, this one rattled my brain a bit. Like you, I invest quite a bit of time and energy into being online and I *know* it affects my creativity and sense of self. I feel that same sense of inadequacy if what I've put out here doesn't get the response I'd like or expect, and I've struggled extensively with writers' block born exclusively from online publication. Hell, it's all over my blog.
What I'm most confounded and disturbed by is the ever-present need to impress others that's developed from my online experiences. That, indeed, affects my creativity -- I know for a fact that I'm so busy trying to keep it sometimes seems impossible to stay true to myself and foster MY real creative bent. I'm grappling with this right now and have been trying to spend less time online and more time trying to settle in with the fact that my true feelings of happiness and acceptance come from within.
Like all social change and movement, this self exposure thing we've got going on with digital will peak and come crashing down. There are already hints that we're burning out. Another thing I see that's developed from living "publicly" is a higher sense of passivity, or even passive aggressive behavior. We, as a society, have used digital to skirt confrontation. Now, instead of talking with a colleague, friend or family member about a serious issue, we email them. We handle our battles online because it saves us from the sky-rocketed heart rate from our fight-or-flight response triggered by confrontation. Is that good? I don't think so.
My brain is still going over this post. I'll probably be back. Thank you for the great food for thought.