The internet is at an interesting place right now, where sharing is becoming easier than ever, but building is becoming more elusive. As people continue to run to Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and other platforms, they’re finding it increasingly easy to share content.
That’s a not a bad thing, for sure. While I work to obtain a lot of content directly from the source that created it (using tools such as Feedly), most great content still comes my way because someone shared it with me, either via social media or by contacting me directly.
However, while sharing can be a great thing, the slow fade of true content creation on the internet is troubling. Thomas Friedman said it well in his book “Thank You For Being Late“:
“Social media is great for collective sharing, but not always so great for collective building. Good for collective destruction, but maybe not so good for collective construction.”
Collective building can be amazing, but it’s rare. Wikipedia is likely the best example of that, but so are most news organizations. Anything where people can come together and create is a great place to be, and I hope we find a way to develop more of those in the coming years.
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