There are three types of internet users, I've realised. First there are the consumers, they feed on the content the web provides, without ever thinking that it's possible to put stuff back. To them the internet is a more-or-less a "read only medium".
Then there are the transporters. They don't actually
create any content, they just help move it around. They're the people who forward on each email joke they get to everyone in their address book. They're also the bloggers, myspacers and facebookers who fill their pages with stuff
other people have made.
Finally, there are the creators. These are the people who actually
generate content. Despite the vast number of web pages, they're actually rarer than you'd think. The internet acts like a vast hall of mirrors, infinitely reflecting small amounts of content to make it look like much more. This is all very well and good until you actually try to access something a little further away - like a child reaching for the apples at the back of the greengrocer's apparently heaving shelves - and realise it's just the same thing that you've already seen before. The apples at the back are actually the reflections of the apples at the front.
Like everyone else, I started as the first type of internet user. I grazed (does anyone really "surf"?) around the web just amazed at all the stuff that was there.
It wasn't until I set up this web site that I started to be, in a small way, a creator. The stuff here might not be particularly
good, but at least it's mainly
my stuff, that doesn't exist anywhere else. Of course, you could say the same about any site in my blogroll. But that's because I won't link to a blogger who's just linking or re-hashing other people's stuff.
That's not to say that you can't be a good blogger
without being "creative" in the classic sense of the word. It can be as simple as just talking about who you are and what you're doing. If you're writing the words yourself, it's an act of creation.
Recently two of my favourite bloggers (and favourite people!) both packed up shop within a few weeks of each other.
Miss K and
Siobhan are both highly creative people, working in creative careers, which is one of the reasons that their blogs were so good. It wasn't that they ran out of things to talk about, they just seemed to run out of desire to talk about it
on a blog.
That's purely my interpretation, of course. And I can kind of grudgingly understand and respect their reasons for doing it, even though I miss their blogs terribly.
I myself ran out of things to
talk about about a month after starting my blog. I think it's a testament to my dogged determination that I didn't let that stop me blogging! And I'm not going to stop now, despite a general down-turn in the things that used to inspire me. Another factor that probably influences my blogging is that I don't have other outlets generally for creativity, which means I'll always keep chucking stuff here, whether you like it or not!
I'm not really sure where I'm going with this. Yesterday, while I was churning out a tranny-based Sherlock Holmes story, I found myself thinking
why am I doing this?
(I guess a few of you read it and thought something very similar!)
I had to think about my motives, and it comes down to a realisation I came to a while ago.
I realised that what I was trying to achieve was to try to balance my account with the internet. I can't deny that I've got a hell of a lot
out of the web, this is just my attempt to put something back
in. I might never be a net exporter of content, but at least I'm trying!
Oh, and one last thing, there's nothing wrong with just consuming. If you really don't feel you have anything to say, then it's not a crime to just sit back and enjoy. What
is a crime, I think, is not giving feedback to the people who
are trying to put stuff out there. I feel guilty of it too, I don't spend enough time just saying "well done" to all of the fantastic stuff that I see on the web every day.
That's it. My brain is empty. Now I just need to think of the
next blog entry.
This coincides with news from Anglian water that high residual traces of LSD have been found in the water table of West Norfolk.
Yeah. There's always one person who gets the name tarred for generations. Our local postie, Alf Hitler has the same problem. :)
There was a blind prophet from Thebes,
Who Hera decided to tease,
By swapping his gender,
He succumbed to suspenders,
fishnets, a thong and panties.
NH: That's just what the pope said to Gallileo!
other folks have to live in Chicken(alaska), or on Dildo Island (canada).
They could be wankers! I'm guessing thats what you call someone who lives at the base of the wank (a mountain in germany).
Some Swindonians are similally embarrased about their town name.
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