Curation Culture

Jon-Kyle Mohr posted a really thoughtful critique of the online curation culture called A Complimentary Rant on the State of Convenience. (Is curation culture a term? Can I coin that?) Anyway, Jon-Kyle’s central question:

Why is it that with the ease of publishing available today people so often choose to re-post content as opposed to create it?

I thought I’d take a shot at answering. I emailed him with my thoughts, since he so generously linked to my blog as an example of original content. He encouraged me to publish it, so my response is below.

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Jon-Kyle,

Read your article this morning and wanted to give you some solace about the situation.

Most people don’t make things. Never have. Never will. It’s not necessarily a point of pride for those of us that do, but more a question of people’s innate desires. Some have the compulsion to make things and others do not. Even before these tools popped up, most folks’ jobs were to be consumers of the things created by a smaller group of individuals willing to do that creative work. No shame in that. Somebody needs to be the audience, right?

Most people will never make anything. Because making something is work. Optional work, at that. Design, art, writing, whatever: it’s work, and work is hard. You have to organize your ideas and sweat on the page until something good shows up. I think what has happened is that these newer tools that promote sharing allow audiences to feel like they’re making something through curation. It’s participation, and that has them feel like they’re making something, much in the same way that chatting with someone online makes you feel like you’re talking to them. It’s not the same (that’s besides the point), but the lizard part of our brain says it is the same.

The world is starved for original content, but it’s not because less people are making than any other point in history. It’s simply because more people are curating the work that the world makes. Blogs, Tumblrs, FFFFound, magazines, etc. It’s a wonderful time to be a maker because there are so many ways for people to appreciate your work.

But there are so many digital and printed pack-rat collections of stuff. And man, every time you save something online, it’s a copy, so you never run out of stuff. We’ve set up a system that says “By looking at other people’s work, your work gets better.” Maybe so, but usually not once a creative reaches beyond straight imitation. Looking at other people’s work is usually done in lieu of actually working, and seeks to find relevant, borrowed solutions from other people’s different tasks, problems and processes.

Then again, good creative work is a siren’s song: it’s enjoyable, beautiful, and inspiring. It makes one think that these qualities can rub off on them or their work by possessing the same space. Why wouldn’t they want to save it to their blog?

Part of me wonders when the novelty of it will wane. It’s definitely satisfaction-driven button pushing. There’s a text box there. Gotta fill it, right?

Now, about that whole loss of context thing? Yes. That sucks. We’ve adopted a diet of breadcrumbs rather than full, proper meals. No suggestions for this. Lots of people are feeble. The only suggestion I have is to make really good bread. (These people I’m unfairly calling feeble did sit through all 86 hours of the Soprano’s, after all.)

All I know is that the more minutiae we’re bombarded with, the poorer decisions we make. And to me, that is the real tragedy.