Quote:
Originally Posted by Trenien
Before the advent of devices that could play music for you, playing an instrument/singing together with friends/family was something very widely spread. It doesn't matter however badly it was done, or if people kept playing the same musics and song over and over again: it was creation on a very personal level.
It's only our modern society that has fostered the idea that professionally produced material is the only kind that is worth any sort of attention.
Fortunately, the advent of the internet has broken that mold. Take a look around, see what kind of stories, webcomics and so on exists, you'll be surprised. People want to create. Many, for whatever reason, will not have the drive to keep at it, or even to begin - creating is hard work. But if the environment you provide fosters such behavior, you'll see more and more people attempting to make something, just for the heck of it, for creating something is very rewarding.
Fundamentaly, Doctorow's critic is that a device such as the ipad is one step further toward making people into passive consumers: you are not supposed to create anything with it, you're just supposed to use it to buy, again and again (newspaper subscription, books, comics, movies, you name it). As is, you mostly can't make anything with it. It says something very interesting about Apple when Microsoft, of all companies, has a project with which (if it is ever released) is more geared toward you creating something with what you get out of the box.
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Not wishing to sound cranky, but how many created a new song? That was the point I was trying to express. That level of creativity is not common.
The internet has given much wider access to such people, which is a good thing, but I don't think it has increase the ration of creative to non-ctreative people.
Of course, that doesn't necessarily make me right......