Cult of Importance...The Notice Me Generation
The notice me generation, the blog posting, onlibe profile, I have 100000 friends on myspace generation have come crashing through the doors megaphone and cell phone in hand. There was a time not too long ago where writers were actually talented. There was a time where a brief glimpse into the inner mind of some people were a luxury as much as it was insightful. When Sylvia Plath's journals were published we saw a glimpse of her mind and her life and the thoughts that led towards her suicide. But thanks to technology and a high speed modem everyone can now broadcast their inner most thoughts into the cyberworld.
At any given time, millions of onlibe journals makes it way through the cyber relam. Spawning amatuer poets, mystery writers, ranters and ravers and reporter, the state of writing is at all time low point. Its hard to write when everyone, who thinks they can write do so and publishes online as too share their creativity to the world. Nice sentiment but leave writing to those with talent. While being a writer would be translated to starving artist, those with talent usually won't starve for too long. The flipside to talent is that overwhelming amount of "writers" or those who want to write are encouraged by postive feedback and comments, though they have no talent. Yes, writing a poem is nice, I'm sure your pain is real and heartfelt but please don't confuse politeness with "you have talent". Real poets, talented poets have a hard time as is in the writing world, to see or read other "poets" who do it as a hobby, or those who do not possess talent get recognition is an insult. Writing isn't as easy as everyone thinks it is. Anyone can put a sentence together but not everyone can turna sentence into a brilliant novel. I've been a professional writer since I graduated college, and I can not stop myslef from rolling my eyes when I meet someone who also claims that they are also a poet or a writer. When asked if they been published the answer is usually: "No, I write for fun or on this website." James Joyce is rolling over in his grave as we speak.
From online Nerudas, to online Edward J. Murrows your opinion, while valid and yours and may even impress those around you are merely your own. I'm a journalist and an author, having landed my book deal recently. But as a journalist the main objective is to be objective, to follow it up with facts. Not to say some media outlets are clearly biased some liberal others conservative, I worked for AP so there were no added extra adjectives to describe the news. While bloggers will dish their opinions, and arm chair book store facts they googled with an intro to sociology class under their belt which makes them "experts" now, these bloggers do not follow any rules. The rule of law in the cyberworld is that your opinion no matter how ridiculous is valid and there are no repercussions. That statement is in of itself a falsehood. What one writes and leaves for the world to read and form an opinion is a big responsibility. What happens is that "your" opinion will go down as fact, "you" may be wrong in your assessment, you opinion may be off center and that in of itself ceases to be news or opinion it becomes fiction. There are some excellent bloggers whose opinions and writings are superb but to the casual blogger who decided to write about genocide or the war in Iraq and gets their facts mixed up then we have a problem. Everyone is free to raise an opinion, everyone is free to publish, write, sing or even rap their opinion, but you also have to understand that there is a responsibility there as well.
All of this comes down to one small thing, well one real big thing with a lot of sub-plot. ME, ME, ME. Read my blog, sign my guestbook, pay attention to me, rate my pic. Between reality shows and websites, we have made insta-celebritities of the normal average person, who wants their 15 minutes of fame. We blog, we post photos we do all this for what? So we can get noticed, a sense of self, an affirmation of out beauty, intelligence, wit, etc, etc, etc. Is it really possible to have a quarter million friends on myspace? Well sure its possible, its not like you ahave a quarter million birthday parties to show up too, or but 250,000 X-Mas cards. Its a popularity conest on a cyber-level, purely superficial and often mindless, millions of people worldwide, like the concept of being popular, wanted, needed, read and heard. Notice me, love me, pay attention to me is the new battlecry in the cyber-revolution that started over a decade ago. Today we are all exhibitionists and voyeurs trying to peek into someone's world and want others to peek into ours.
There is no real conclusion to this, sans this, the level of our writig, our music and art is a reflection of society. The importance of not yourselves, but in the actual writing is critical. Some woman the other day when she found out that I was a writer and journalist complained that the news was bad and that the last two books she read were horrible. As if I were responsible for the world events or the books and writers being published, I realized that there isn't a more important time than now that I should be good at my job. So while millions read about the comings and goings of celebrities and the midnlessa ntics of someone, somewhere who had a bad day at work, or the heart-breaking poem about that guy or girl, I'll be in the Sudan.
At any given time, millions of onlibe journals makes it way through the cyber relam. Spawning amatuer poets, mystery writers, ranters and ravers and reporter, the state of writing is at all time low point. Its hard to write when everyone, who thinks they can write do so and publishes online as too share their creativity to the world. Nice sentiment but leave writing to those with talent. While being a writer would be translated to starving artist, those with talent usually won't starve for too long. The flipside to talent is that overwhelming amount of "writers" or those who want to write are encouraged by postive feedback and comments, though they have no talent. Yes, writing a poem is nice, I'm sure your pain is real and heartfelt but please don't confuse politeness with "you have talent". Real poets, talented poets have a hard time as is in the writing world, to see or read other "poets" who do it as a hobby, or those who do not possess talent get recognition is an insult. Writing isn't as easy as everyone thinks it is. Anyone can put a sentence together but not everyone can turna sentence into a brilliant novel. I've been a professional writer since I graduated college, and I can not stop myslef from rolling my eyes when I meet someone who also claims that they are also a poet or a writer. When asked if they been published the answer is usually: "No, I write for fun or on this website." James Joyce is rolling over in his grave as we speak.
From online Nerudas, to online Edward J. Murrows your opinion, while valid and yours and may even impress those around you are merely your own. I'm a journalist and an author, having landed my book deal recently. But as a journalist the main objective is to be objective, to follow it up with facts. Not to say some media outlets are clearly biased some liberal others conservative, I worked for AP so there were no added extra adjectives to describe the news. While bloggers will dish their opinions, and arm chair book store facts they googled with an intro to sociology class under their belt which makes them "experts" now, these bloggers do not follow any rules. The rule of law in the cyberworld is that your opinion no matter how ridiculous is valid and there are no repercussions. That statement is in of itself a falsehood. What one writes and leaves for the world to read and form an opinion is a big responsibility. What happens is that "your" opinion will go down as fact, "you" may be wrong in your assessment, you opinion may be off center and that in of itself ceases to be news or opinion it becomes fiction. There are some excellent bloggers whose opinions and writings are superb but to the casual blogger who decided to write about genocide or the war in Iraq and gets their facts mixed up then we have a problem. Everyone is free to raise an opinion, everyone is free to publish, write, sing or even rap their opinion, but you also have to understand that there is a responsibility there as well.
All of this comes down to one small thing, well one real big thing with a lot of sub-plot. ME, ME, ME. Read my blog, sign my guestbook, pay attention to me, rate my pic. Between reality shows and websites, we have made insta-celebritities of the normal average person, who wants their 15 minutes of fame. We blog, we post photos we do all this for what? So we can get noticed, a sense of self, an affirmation of out beauty, intelligence, wit, etc, etc, etc. Is it really possible to have a quarter million friends on myspace? Well sure its possible, its not like you ahave a quarter million birthday parties to show up too, or but 250,000 X-Mas cards. Its a popularity conest on a cyber-level, purely superficial and often mindless, millions of people worldwide, like the concept of being popular, wanted, needed, read and heard. Notice me, love me, pay attention to me is the new battlecry in the cyber-revolution that started over a decade ago. Today we are all exhibitionists and voyeurs trying to peek into someone's world and want others to peek into ours.
There is no real conclusion to this, sans this, the level of our writig, our music and art is a reflection of society. The importance of not yourselves, but in the actual writing is critical. Some woman the other day when she found out that I was a writer and journalist complained that the news was bad and that the last two books she read were horrible. As if I were responsible for the world events or the books and writers being published, I realized that there isn't a more important time than now that I should be good at my job. So while millions read about the comings and goings of celebrities and the midnlessa ntics of someone, somewhere who had a bad day at work, or the heart-breaking poem about that guy or girl, I'll be in the Sudan.
posted by V.Daniel | 11:31 AM
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