What is most important to you?
Published by on March 21st, 2006
Some unpleasantness around the Britcaster forums recently has helped me to re-evaluate motivations and what podcasting truly means to me and consider what others might be getting from it. So I was finally able to finish this post which has been sat in my drafts folder for a few weeks taunting me with its need for completion.
I learned a big lesson last week: the sense of satisfaction, achievement, and creative fulfillment at having written and submitted a first-draft screenplay was greater than that produced by the sum of my past year’s involvement in podcasting - I would trade one for the other in a moment. Revelations like that do tend to make you sit back and re-evaluate what is important and perhaps take steps to refocus on what brings joy rather than get all wrapped up in irrelevances.
As a naturally creative individual I have a thousand ways to express creative urge. When one doesn’t suit or has been explored to its natural conclusion, move on to the next. Podcasting, for example, is nothing more than a new way to express some creativity and in these busy work times, a means to reach more people with less effort and expenditure than doing standup comedy - which itself rarely gave me the buzz I had been searching for at the time.
Around me I am starting to see podcasting, amongst some at least, in danger of becoming solidified as an end unto itself rather than just another new form of creative expression - albeit more accessible to your average person than most. What is so dangerous about this? It is the danger potential generated by those who want to preserve in amber a medium which, in order to survive, has to adapt and evolve from the toddler it is now into whatever angst-ridden adolescent it is destined to become - adulthood is still a long way off. Clutching too hard on this new communication ‘revolution’ in its current form will certainly lead to segregation of and prejudice against those who adapt and evolve with it, even more so against those actively seeking a means of pushing it forward. Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of support for moving forward, but there is also some distinct resistance.
This got me thinking about what might be the psychology behind all this need to preserve the now.
Unlike those of us working in the creative industries, the vast majority of people have no public, outward expression of creativity. Yet bubbling inside is the urge to express.. something… and have it heard. Podcasting empowers that urge in a similar way to blogging when it started to appear. But many of the podcasters of now are not bloggers evolving into a new medium, they are newcomers entirely. It has rapidly become difficult to stand out and be noticed in the blogging world without a massive amount of invested time, but standing out, being noticed, and having your voice heard at the leading edge of an emerging communication medium is far easier and far more gratifying - at least in these early stages. The personal significance of podcasting to an individual becomes much greater and therefore, to them, must be preserved. And that is a natural and understandable urge.
If all goes well, this divergence in motivation between those wishing to preserve and those happy to surf the evolution wave will be a smooth ride and everyone will coexist in peace and harmony, podcasting to their heart’s content. But if the wills of the resistance are too forceful, it will likely lead to an unfortunate segregation. Despite endless discussion about which is the superior sound format, Vinyl and CD still manage to coexist just fine, I hope the same will be said between podcasting present (vinyl) and podcasting future (CD).
Technorati Tags: podcasting
2 Responses to “What is most important to you?”
March 22nd, 2006 at 12:15 am
This is a really interesting thread Neil. I would like to hear more as and when your thoughts evolve.
April 1st, 2006 at 4:59 pm
Cheers Paul, glad this inspired some thought. In your email you mentioned the possible parallel between the current podcasting interest and that of CB radio in the past - a hobby I was involved in myself.
There may be a similar motivation of extending one’s reach beyond the four walls of one’s day to day life, but I think it’s very different to reach out to a fairly closed, focused group of like-minded individuals all with similarly aligned interests, than it is to broadcast thoughts, ideas, opinions to the world. CB enabled limited groups to be formed so perhaps the more accurate analogy would be to compare CB with the relationships between podcasters (as opposed to podcasters & listeners) - such as the handful of active podcasters which regularly participate on Britcaster.com.