The Cult of the Amateur
I saw this book, The Cult of the Amateur, while we were in a bookstore on Saturday. I sometimes wonder to myself how I choose what books to read. I sometimes hear of a good book and try and get hold of it, but normally they just sort of jump out at me while I walk past them in a bookstore. That’s probably the reason I order so few books online. And even though I can probably get most of the books I read as PDF files for free online, I must prefer laying down in bed or on the couch with a book in my hand.
I read the first 2 pages in the store, and decided to get the book. There were mentions of Google, Youtube, Myspace and WikiPedia, which probably appealed to my inner-geek. Last night I started reading the book, and couldn’t really put it down. I’ve read about 3/4 of it. It has to do with Web 2.0 and the way that anyone can become a journalist, product reviewer, movie reviewer, film maker, part of a band, or really just about anything online. This is great, at least that is what I thought when I got into this online this a couple of years ago and have liked how it was evolving.
There are consequences to this though, something we might not all have thought of. If anyone can put up ANYTHING online, who is to say what is the truth and what is not. It really becomes a case of the truth being relative. Not just that, but thousands of people are losing jobs because the more online media becomes popular, the less popular offline media like newspapers and magazines become. Advertising is also taking a knock, which is resulting in poorer and poorer shows being seen on TV. The book was printed before the recession hit the word, so I wonder how much worse it really is now?
Another interesting thing from the book is Wikipedia. There are a few examples in the book about academics that tries to correct things on a Wikipedia page that is wrong, but their work is undone by someone that is a more established Wikipedia contributor. So it’s not about the facts, but rather about what the majority of people believe to be correct. Now I’ve always thought Wikipedia is a really cool thing, and I still do, but now I just think a bit more about it. Their catch phrase is, “the free encyclopedia that ANYONE can edit”. Who is to say that the people doing the editing are qualified to do so?
That is where the whole amateur thing comes in. The amateurs believe that their word is noble because they don’t have the qualifications to talk about what they’re talking about, but they do have the passion. And somehow that outweighs the fact that they might not be right. I am also an amateur.
If you’re into Web 2.0 or you just love being on the Internet, I would really recommend this book. Not to try and persuade you that the Internet is evil, but just so that you are aware and able to make informed decisions about what you believe on the Net.
The Cult of the Amateur