The Top Internet Surfers Make Waves
According to the book Citizen Marketers, the ratio of surfers to active contributors on the Internet is about 100-to-1, which is 1% of the total. So, in the blogosphere, 1% of the people reading blogs are also writing on their own blogs. On YouTube, 1% of the people watching videos are making and uploading their own. On Flickr, 1% of the people browsing photographs are taking pictures with their own camera and sharing them with the world.
Assuming that number is accurate, here's the question: Why is it so low? One percent is an extremely small portion, even if you take into account that many people with Internet access lack access to technologies that would enable them to make videos or take pictures. But when you consider the extent to which the Internet has made the tools of production and distribution available to everyone, why are only one percent of people making their own contributions?
My guess is that it's fear. People cling to their ideas because revealing them would open you up for criticism, and people almost never react to what you create the way you had hoped or expected. And that's terrifying.
But there's value in just doing. My brother recorded a dozen songs, almost all of which he wrote himself, and you can hear them on his Facebook page. They're not great, but they're certainly interesting. More importantly, he went to the trouble of creating the songs, and then putting them out in public for others to hear. That puts him in a very, very small minority.
I'll concede that the blogosphere and YouTube since their inceptions have become repositories for loads of unfathomable crap. But the promise of the Internet never was to make everyone a great writer, film maker, or photographer. Nor was it to constrain its content only to that which meets a certain standard. Instead, it affords everyone the opportunity to be a contributor, and to be heard at the same time.
Why do I blog on here? I don't think I'm a particularly interesting person, but I'm not going to apologize for that. If you want elitism, go hang out at an Ivy League school with the PhD's who have tenure and you'll see how awful it is.
Besides, the Internet has revealed its own brand of elitism that has nothing to do with quality of content. Instead, what puts you above everyone else is the very act of making something, because everyone can, but very few do. It's those who take advantage of the opportunity before them over those who passively consume. If you create something and put it out there on the Web, you become part of the top one percent of people hanging out on the web, and I call it the "top" because those who create anything are better than those who create nothing.
Here's the question the Internet is asking each of us: "What's stopping you?"
Assuming that number is accurate, here's the question: Why is it so low? One percent is an extremely small portion, even if you take into account that many people with Internet access lack access to technologies that would enable them to make videos or take pictures. But when you consider the extent to which the Internet has made the tools of production and distribution available to everyone, why are only one percent of people making their own contributions?
My guess is that it's fear. People cling to their ideas because revealing them would open you up for criticism, and people almost never react to what you create the way you had hoped or expected. And that's terrifying.
But there's value in just doing. My brother recorded a dozen songs, almost all of which he wrote himself, and you can hear them on his Facebook page. They're not great, but they're certainly interesting. More importantly, he went to the trouble of creating the songs, and then putting them out in public for others to hear. That puts him in a very, very small minority.
I'll concede that the blogosphere and YouTube since their inceptions have become repositories for loads of unfathomable crap. But the promise of the Internet never was to make everyone a great writer, film maker, or photographer. Nor was it to constrain its content only to that which meets a certain standard. Instead, it affords everyone the opportunity to be a contributor, and to be heard at the same time.
Why do I blog on here? I don't think I'm a particularly interesting person, but I'm not going to apologize for that. If you want elitism, go hang out at an Ivy League school with the PhD's who have tenure and you'll see how awful it is.
Besides, the Internet has revealed its own brand of elitism that has nothing to do with quality of content. Instead, what puts you above everyone else is the very act of making something, because everyone can, but very few do. It's those who take advantage of the opportunity before them over those who passively consume. If you create something and put it out there on the Web, you become part of the top one percent of people hanging out on the web, and I call it the "top" because those who create anything are better than those who create nothing.
Here's the question the Internet is asking each of us: "What's stopping you?"