The Cult of the Amateur

We all know the rate at which technology has advanced over the past few decades, from the first email sent in 1971 to the email I just received on my Smart phone a second ago, but what are the implications and uses for these new platforms available to us? The dawn of Social media has been a huge turning point in technology and has forced the world to look at everything in a new perspective. Facebook, YouTube, Blogs, Phone Apps, to name a few, mean that we no longer view media in the same way. So are these new technologies a step forward or are they in fact, as Andrew Keen suggests, damaging our culture.

Unlike Keen, I do not believe that the ability of the masses to voice their opinion is a bad thing, on the contrary, however I can see his concerns when people start to take themselves to seriously and become disillusioned with the power available to them. Some platforms have shown their worth as talent scouting sources with successes such as Justin Bieber, who would probably still be your average talented 16 year old were it not for YouTube. On the other hand YouTube is also over run with video blogs and amateur news channels that have little or no credibility in academic terms.

One of Keen lectures on the cult of the amateur is available on YouTube and a beautiful irony in this is that a young American blogger has posted his response to the topic in a video blog just bellow. It would seem that the young man involved has not realized the irony of his post, possibly suggesting that he doesn't fully understand the themes of the topic and thus reinforcing Keen's claims even further. I, However am no different, by posting this blog I am only adding fuel to fire. What makes me so special that I can have my say on the subject and believe that anyone should care about my opinion. Well I suppose it boils down to the fact that although I can put my point across it doesn't guarantee that anyone will read this and if they do they may not take it seriously.

Freedom of speech is a right and one that we all should have however I do share Keen's concern that the line between credible and non credible sources is becoming increasingly blurred. What is to say that in a few years time, University students such as myself  will struggle to differentiate between credible academic material and irrelevant content from unknown sources. "The Cult of the Amateur" may indeed exist but is it destroying culture or is this just the natural progression for culture given the new and changing forms of technology? What do you think?