We’re All Producers

My friend Ben, producing his own media.

We’re getting way too focused. Over dinner with a friend the other day, we discussed that as far as human beings go, we’re getting pretty specialized. It’s generally accepted by [most of industrialized] society that as we grow up, we go to school, and eventually settle into a profession (or a handful of them). Very few people actually do everything for themselves; these professions allow us to become interdependent and concentrate on our own slice of the work. It’s a great way to make sure quality services and products are developed, but there are obvious trade-offs.

When did entertainment become one of those slices? I see people eat food they didn’t make, live places they didn’t build, and use goods they didn’t craft. So why not apply the same principle to how we relax and enjoy ourselves?

Maybe I’m a little biased. Right now I’m working as a digital media designer, and as a result, work with many of the same tools that the mass media use. Among other things, I write/remix/play music, make animations, and write stories for myself. As a result, I look at the mass media not just as a consumer, but as a student and competitor. I love watching a well directed story, but at the same time a little voice in my head says “When are you going to do that?”

A lot more people these days seem to be asking the same question. With the advent of YouTube, Newgrounds, and similar sites that are based on user created content, a culture of media literacy and homegrown entertainment is being nurtured. You’ve heard it all before, everyone’s a director, animator, performer now, with an audience that reaches most corners of the civilized globe. It’s a great creative outlet, and the potential is enormous. I heard from a friend that the writer’s strike is actually causing people to depend on YouTube for entertainment. Pretty amazing if you ask me.

But is this the voice of all the people that were producing media anyway? Or have we gotten to the point where people who wouldn’t normally produce are doing so? Is the next step revisiting the days when families had at least one piano player in the house? I wonder if families might even become amateur production studios, and take home movies to a new level. Dad handles the A/V, junior writes and performs the soundtrack, mom does the writing, and sis takes on the lead role.

I’m all for anything that takes our dependence off the mass media. I know we still tend to get our news through the usual channels, and nothing amazes quite like a big budget Hollywood blockbuster. I just hope that despite the huge entertainment industry, more people are realizing the value and satisfaction of homegrown media. Not to mention that instead of listening to homogenized and carefully calculated beliefs and values, people could dodge mass media hegemony long enough to learn for themselves.

Maybe it’s because of my profession, but I see entertainment as one of the great opportunities for expression this society isn’t taking advantage of. We have the means, technology, and tools, why isn’t this second nature? Don’t we all have this incredible urge to create, tell our stories, and perform our songs?

I write this, of course, while smelling food that someone else is cooking, on a computer I didn’t assemble, in a house I didn’t build. I’m sure all of those things are just as important to other people as the aforementioned media are to me… Does that make me short-sighted? Maybe.