Many of us spend a lot of time giving away our creative and intellectual labor for free: editing Wikipedia entries, putting our music on MySpace, blogging, micro-blogging, uploading photos to Flickr, putting videos on YouTube, and pasting goofy phrases onto cat pictures.
Plenty of web sites make a living from the content that people provide for free. But Andrew Keen (an author who is famously grumpy about user-generated content) wonders now if the economic crisis will kill off free content on the internet, leaving only web sites that “reward their contributors with cash.” He writes:
One of the very few positive consequences of the current financial miasma will be a sharp cultural shift in our attitude toward the economic value of our labor. Mass unemployment and a deep economic recession comprise the most effective antidote to the utopian ideals of open-source radicals. … I’m pretty sure, if not certain, that the idea of free labor will suddenly become profoundly unpalatable to someone faced with their house being repossessed or their kids going hungry. Being paid to work is intuitive to the human condition; it represents our most elemental sense of justice.
Depends on how you define work.
If you’re Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, you’ve come to believe that the reason we blog, comment, and otherwise post free stuff to the web is that it’s fun — not work — at least as fun as watching TV, and maybe more engaging.
So is the financial crisis really the end of free content on the internet, or is it another excuse for us to type away at each other?
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No. Keen is wrong. Let me just get that out of the way.
Show me evidence supporting the notion that the adult human inclination is to get paid, and I’ll show you mountains of studies showing that children in early childhood (read: less socialized) create for the love of it.
Human inclination is to create because one has passion- not because one gets paid. Because it’s one of the only chances we get to see our beingness actualized in physical form. Work for pay/reward is socialized into us by a capitalistic/ economy driven society.
Every human craves that untainted creative space. A place where they are creating for their joy only. A space not governed by external standards, rules and regulations (such as school or the working environment.)Having an unrestricted space to create is a throwback to the freedom of our childhood… which is why user-generated content took off and why it is also here to stay.
-BraZen
Art Instructor
All the profits from social platforms should be given to charity.This is a matter of ethics. Shouldn’t everyone profit off of free information??
As long as the costs (monthly ISP charges and the time commitment) remain low, why would people stop posting/commenting/creating? Since the rewards are non-monetary, I don’t see the financial crisis having much impact unless it *very* seriously impacting most people’s free time and/or disposable income.
Then again, if gas prices (and long-distance phone rates) become cost-prohibitive, the Internet may be the only game in town for many people. A dire situation may inspire people to set up more open access points and share their broadband connection with neighbors, etc.
Sharing and bartering may become more common, but I have trouble imagining people isolating and silencing themselves after tasting the kind of interaction and expression offered online.
I started to blog early this year as a way to redicover my writing touch and nurture any creativity that I might have. I have been unemployed since July in the meantime, but have kept blogging on and off, because I feel nurturing creativity is worth the effort . It helps that I am just 25 and have minimum financial responsibilities. But, I do have an internet bill and a student loan to pay, so my online presence will soon drop. Then, I intend to continue with pen and paper.
Definitely another reason to keep typing. For the short term, anyway. Us unemployed blokes will be typing away much faster than normal, because we have the time, and we think it might actually pay off for us. Maybe someone will find us interesting enough to pay. Who knows. However, that can last only so long; food is definitely more important than fun, and that’s what this internet blogging stuff is. That said, I think I’ll keep doing it as long as I can afford internet service, which may not be much longer.
Being unemployed reduces the value of my time and increases the amount of leisure time I have (it doesn’t take 40 hours a week to look for a job), so I would spend more time blogging, not less.
I’d blog from the unemployment line. It would make interesting discussion, I’m sure.
Let’s begin stating some assumptions:
* One, total number of posts in the blogosphere =f(time available for posting).
* Two, a blog is an useful tool for personal promotion.
* Three, there is a lot to talk about nowadays.
* Four, many intelligent people will have plenty of time in coming months (you know what I mean)
What can we infere from the above points about the impact of the financial crisis in the blogsphere?
You only have to take a look on the growing importance of blogs on economics and business. These topics are hot now.
I think we will see some great new blogs on business and economy, some of them featuring insider stories. Most blogs won’t be financially profitable but used to show their editors’ skills, trying to impress possible employers or customers.
Going back to the crisis I think leisure will be enjoyed predominantely in-house, and Internet access will be part of it without a doubt. People will think about this service as an investment, not an expense.
Wonderful blog, by the way. Here is mine:
http://abundando.blogspot.com/
Best regards from Madrid (Spain),
Pablo