the Onda

I love the premise of Clay Shirky's Web 2.0 talk this year, "Gin, Television, and Social Surplus." Just as gin helped the Victorians deal with the wrenching changes of the industrial revolution, according to Shirky, the modern-day sitcom has helped us deal with the "cognitive surplus" created by rise in free time that 1st worlders benefited from during the second half of the 20th century. It's a great polemic which argues that the participatory nature of the Internet enables us to come out of the content-consumption binge of 20th century television because even if we're blogging about our cats and navels, creating content is inherently more valuable than simply consuming it.

Obviously the idea that any type of content creation is better than simple consumption is a normative judgement. It is one though that lay beneath the foundation of what Tabblo was meant to be from the start, so it is near and dear to my heart. To this day, at the office we argue the merits of Clay's argument on a fairly regular basis, with me most frequently on the side of cat blogs over Desperate Housewives.

That said, I think his attack on "consumption-only" media as just giant suckers of the cognitive surplus is a little harsh. For instance, I'm surprised that Shirky doesn't mention Steven Johnson's wonderful book "Everything Bad Is Good for You" and its analysis of how the best television shows are actually helping to train a whole generation of minds in new ways of coping with ever-increasing complexity of the world.

Similarly, the story of the four year old at the end of the talk who walks around to the back of the screen to "find the mouse" because she expects all media to be interactive struck me as too contrived. As the father of two young boys that straddle the age of his subject (6 and 3), and who are currently obsessed with everything Star Wars, I have a different perspective. Both boys consume Star Wars in at least five different media formats: the original movies, the Lego Star Wars Nintendo DS saga, the Star Wars Guide to Galaxy popup books, actual Star Wars Legos to build and play act, and the games we make up to pass the time in the car. And even at such young ages they have a very nuanced view of when they are supposed to interact and to what degree— but most importantly, they also know when to sit back and just drink in the world that George Lucas has created for them.

Finally, the Star Wars example is also one that spans beyond small children for the following reason: I would be willing to bet that if you took the total amount of "user generated content" that is about, based on, a parody of, etc. the Star Wars Universe and divided it by the total amount of user generated content, you would end up with a meaningful fraction. Which is exactly why we'll always need great story tellers and the mediums which let them shine if we are to take advantage of this supposed cognitive surplus as creators and sharers.

Great talk though— make sure not to miss it!

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