Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Where is the original content?

I am not alone in noticing the severe lack of original content coming out of Hollywood these days... remakes, reboots, re-imaginings and endless sequels. So there is no need to rehash that here.

What I have been noticing more and more, however, is a similar trend on social media sites like Facebook and Google+. A lot of people posting seem to be endlessly reposting content from other sources rather than posting something original. And by this, I mean reposting (or sharing) posts made by other people, or videos or cutesy pictures and random quotations, most of the time without any additional content beyond "This is cool" or "Awesome!" This is akin to when everybody discovered email and forwarded every single joke or cat picture that came along (this still happens, too -- it keeps snopes.com in business!)

I know I have been guilty of this myself, when I am bored or can't find something better to post about. But in the past few weeks, I have realized, if I have nothing to post about, maybe I just shouldn't post... or... better yet, write about something and post it via this blog :-)

3 comments:

  1. I completely agree! This is why I can't really figure out social sites like Facebook and G+. It all just seems like nonsense and a waste of time to me. I'm far more inclined to "Like" or Circle someone who posts original content which I find interesting or of some value. Great post, Brett.

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  2. A lot of it is laziness, I think. People want to be online interacting with others but really have nothing to say... if I am going to post a link (like the one I posted yesterday on a 19th Century artist I discovered), I am going to write something about what I am posting rather than just blindly reposting stuff.

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  3. That's why I really enjoy using Instagram. If you have something to say, you have to show it visually, there's no other way to "update your statues". I also like Instagram because not that many people are on it. Snobby but true.

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