Shifting from passive consumer to producer

Clay Shirky, professor at NYU who consults on the impact of the internet and technology on culture and economics, gives a thought provoking speech at this year’s Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.

He observes that for today’s generation, “media includes consuming, producing and sharing.” And that “media that’s targeted at you, but doesn’t include you may not be worth sitting still for.”

I think he’s mostly right. (I can’t say entirely, because I do still enjoy the guilty pleasure of plopping myself in front of my big screen Mac, mowing down jalapeno cheese puffs while being completely obsessed with the latest season of Survivor.)

But I do agree that people want to be involved. We no longer want to be entirely passive receivers of information - we want to receive, then give back. Whether it’s posting a silly shot to lolcats, uploading a video of last night’s escapades to YouTube, or displaying our latest photo shoot on Flickr.

Sharing is at the core of what people want to do. (But please keep Survivor going….)

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