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A SHORT NOTE OF EXPLANATION
The democratisation of the media and what it means to surfing
Category: General
Posted by: tim
I am still a bit new to all this, and have baulked at the idea of blogging, largely because the whole world is already doing it. Do we really need another blog? Don't we all have better things to do with our time? And I haven't wanted to start forums or allow comments and have to moderate a whole lot of trash talk because that is how most forums I've seen tend to devolve. But I don't wish to be elitist or somehow cut off or above discussion either. So if you have something to say feel free to go to the contact button and send a message. I may even post it. But from the look of a lot of forums, we are all probably better off if some people aren't given a say. I'm all for upsetting the apple cart and storming the bastielle of the old media world, and plenty of the established media deserve to be brought down for their heinous flouting of the laws of human decency. But a lot of the new media I see is even worse. I read somewhere recently that snarking is where it is at, deliberately and viciously tearing others down as a form of public amusement. There are occasions when it can be witty and no great harm done, but when the intention is to inflict harm, cause hurt, then I think we are diminished by it - creator and consumer a like. So you will find not find much of it here. To be honest, I could almost feel it creeping in at times, like some infectious disease, simply from trawling the internet and picking up a tone almost by osmosis, a nasty, sneering, put-down tone that I think ultimately only reflects the internal pain of the writer. So I am going to make an effort to advoid it. I would like to put my chips, instead, on story telling. While we are being titilated, shocked, outraged, disgusted and scandalised by a new, short form media trying to endlessly trigger an emotional response, any emotional response, in the shortest possible time, I think we miss out on the edifying, humanising and ultimately emotionally satisfying effects of real story telling. I think people are starved of it. And they respond to it instinctively because amidst the bombardment of silly video clips and 300 word diatribes, they are never taken on a journey, simply prodded and poked, in the search for a nerve ending, like a junkie trying to find a vein. I'll have no part of it - except, possibly, for the occasional lapse. So, I guess that is all my way of saying, whatever fluff and nonsense goes on here, for me it is really about the stories and the books. I hope you'll go and check them out and find something of worth in them. And I'll try and provide stuff here of genuine interest. Cheers.