The Changing Shape of the Internet: Less Room for Creativity

This blog is about science fiction and fantasy. It's about world-building and good books and movies. It's also about creativity in general and that's why I think talking about the internet is relevant. The internet is the medium through which many people express their creativity. It's a powerful tool through which people can share complex thoughts and ideas. Lately, however, the tides of social media and advertising and the shifting of the big industries towards the internet have sort of begun to drown out this creativity. 

I know there are hundreds of long-winded articles about the death of the internet and facebook's takeover of the internet and privacy issues and so on. I'm not going to focus on those things. This post is about seeing the changes that are sweeping through the internet from the lens of creativity. 

Let me clarify my experience with the internet. I'm not a tech geek or an expert. I'm just someone who used to use the internet to send e-mails (usually concerning school work) and then discovered that you could also post fanfiction, discuss your favorite books and movies, read spec fic magazines, and make and share cool graphics and music on the internet as well... and it went on from there. So for me, the internet is a place where I read fiction and look at cool art and where I look at and participate in discussions about these art forms. 

The problem? I feel as if it's becoming harder and harder to do complex, creative things on the internet. Instead of developing spaces and tools through which people can explore their creativity developers are trying to make everything based on clicking through very simple apps and reducing things to a tweet or a facebook status update. Tweets and facebook likes and updates are nice, but what happened to complex discussions? To creativity?

I can't make a thread for a discussion on facebook anymore. And when trying to reply to a status update on facebook I can't make paragraphs. And how much can you really convey in a 50-character tweet? These things aren't built for complexity or discussion. Which, I suppose is fine, except that the facebook like button is invading the internet and given the choice it's much easier for people to click the like button than post a comment on something. The sad thing is that these days, in more and more spaces, we're not even given the choice anymore. Your only choice is to click the like button or retweet or whatever and move on.

(And no, facebook, I don't want to visit a random article/website only to be presented with stats on how many of my friends liked this - or what comments they made about it on facebook. You're starting to really creep me out! /aside )

Back to creativity. I used to be able to watch youtube videos and listen to music without an ad about yoghurt or some other such thing interrupting me every time I click on something. I don't mind the ads on the side or even the little pop-up ones that you can click away. I do mind the loud blaring ads about bands or concerts that I am not interested in and the stupid tv commercials that I'm not allowed to skip. Watching/listening to a playlist on youtube is becoming painful instead of a fun creative outlet. I have to endure the same stupid commercial every 2-3 minutes - which really ruins the flow and dampens the mood for creativity. (Also, just a hint, advertisers, interrupting me about 20 times in a single half hour is not going to make me want to buy your yoghurt, it's just going to make me angry). I won't even get into VEVO, because I'm still not sure WTH that's all about...>.> 

The final example I want to discuss, and I think the most pertinent, is aviary. This was a very powerful suite of web-based photo and audio editing tools. People like me could make cool looking things without paying for photoshop and experiment with sounds and music despite their lack of experience. It was supposed to be about democratizing creativity. Then one day they decided to make a largely useless photo retouching/editing app and feature that on their website (useless because there are millions of other ones out there and it offers nothing new). This was fine, you could still go to the advanced section and access all the awesome powerful apps. But now they've completely shut down their advanced suite because they want to "focus on" the photo app. What is there to focus on? Compared to the power of the old suite, which allowed you to do actual creative things, it's a joke. There are hundreds of free tools that do the exact same thing. It is not new. 

I can't help feeling like some big company paid them to take it down so people would be forced to buy photoshop and other similar software, or so that people wouldn't be able to make their own graphics and music as easily and would be forced to go through some big company. Because these are the only actual outcomes of taking down the advanced suite. They've taken away powerful and unique tools which used to give people ways of expressing their creativity. 

That's what worries me the most. Taking away this awesome creative power and reducing the internet to facebook likes, tweets, and tv commercials. If you've read this far leave a comment and let me know what you think!