I’m not using Lulu.com either but catching up on my reading, I was very amused by this bit from a NY Times piece on self-publishing:
Indeed, said Robert Young, chief executive of Lulu Enterprises, based in Raleigh, N.C., a majority of the company’s titles are of little interest to anybody other than the authors and their families. “We have easily published the largest collection of bad poetry in the history of mankind,†Mr. Young said.
If you’re a fan of bad poetry, you know where to go!
The DIY trend is interesting. Due to technology (currently partially due to the economy), everyone is doing their own blogs, their own promotion, their own websites — whether escorts, writers/poets or small businesses. I like to think it’s giving power to the people but often it just loses one in the crowd. If you aren’t in a given online social circle, you have NO IDEA that other person exists because the pick-and-choose Internet is replacing mass media. It’s as isolating as living in a small village back when buggies had square wheels and only the rich had horses.*
Not that I’m crying over spilt mass media, I’m simply musing. I think a digital ceiling is forming.
*The square wheels thing is a comical exaggeration.
Ah, but it is the randomness of the internet that is one of its main attractions. Serendipity has worked well for me and I have found some wonderful gems in the blogs of people I have never heard of and will certainly never meet (and yes, there is a lot of rubbish out there as well).
I don’t agree that it is isolating. I have yet to come across a closed online social circle – most people have a number of different circles and following the musings of friends of friends of friends has led me to discover people with novel views on life and truly savage wit.
Although I also agree that the majority of blogs, “are of little interest to anybody other than the authors and their families” (and I would be mortified if my family were to discover my blog), the act of being able to express yourself through a blog is wonderfully cathartic.
Jekyll,
Serendipity is great fun but oftentimes I’ve found myself meeting someone that I should’ve met years ago — they were essentially my next door neighbor. And I’m assuming there are a LOT more whom I haven’t had the good fortune to meet.
No, the Net is isolating. I’m discovering this in my travels. I like real people contact and the Net is capable of facilitating that but…then you have to spend all your time hooked up to the Internet one way or another. The more we’re involved online, the more isolation from the real world occurs.
I’m not saying online social circles are closed (there are some that are!) but meeting people online is often like Plato’s shadows on the wall. They’re not the most satisfying interactions.
Being able to express yourself online (anonymously or not) is a great benefit and does allow you to reach people you would otherwise not meet. It’s a great way to pass along knowledge. One can run a profit-making business completely online. That’s all good and well.
I simply see a new and different form of isolation springing up, based on chaos and luck (and having to spend all day online). Others feel it too, otherwise we wouldn’t have online trolls who obviously don’t think real humans exist behind the screen.
I’m sure others have talked about this all before. I’m just seeing it in my various work. Even though the Internet brings a lot of benefits, it causes a lack.
XX
It is sad that it is so hard to make your name known online, used to be if you made a good site people would come, that is not the case anymore, it seems you have to make a name offline THEN you can get people to look for you online.
Mortalez,
You do have something of a point. While it’s gotten easier to find things/people online, you can also end up finding SO many that you never find what you’re really looking for. And then we still rely on outside sources to tell us about a site THEY found.
I’m always chagrined when I read articles mentioning a website that gets tens of thousands of visitors a day yet I never stumbled upon it online — I had to read a print article to know about it.
No, I have no idea what all this means. Only that we haven’t found the perfect solution yet!
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Amanda