Creativity is certainly a valuable asset, and walking around East Green proves that.
You can hear the beautiful music pouring out of Glidden or stroll through Siegfried and look at the art on display. Even the bathroom scrawlings in Ellis Hall and Baker proclaim touches of brilliance here and there, once you get past the usual men's room profanity. Maybe the bold vulgarities count as art, depending on how you look at it.
People like making things, and they always have. Especially within the last decade, when the Internet opened countless opportunities for self-expression. People speak often about the obvious mediums - YouTube, blogs, Twitter. I have access to all three, allowing me to upload videos and share pearls of 140-character wisdom (or, you know, fart jokes).
The world seems fascinated with video blogs and podcasts, something absolutely anyone can do. If you have a computer, microphone and webcam, then you also have just as much right to spout off as Rush Limbaugh. Making a weekly half-hour show is fun and allows you to tell the world at large how you feel about health care, foreign policy and the Asgardian god Thor.
College students especially have taken to creating. Is it vanity? Do we want the entirety of the world to know who we are, more than how we feel? It definitely seems that way. Facebook, reality television and music videos have pushed us into a culture that values personality more than actual work, according to the critics.
But I don't think the mass population has been washed into the desire to share creative works. That want was always there. Society always had many storytellers, musicians and creators. Previously, however, they would be employed as laborers. Perhaps they would work on the craft in their spare time, perhaps not.
As students in a reasonably liberal town, we have always been pretty fortunate. We generally pursue whatever endeavors we believe to be worthy of our time. Now, anyone can finally write the Great American Novel or paint that serene landscape. The world at large is now limited to supporting its own work, and more often than not, a job becomes a life's focus.
Think about a neighbor of yours, who works a menial 9-to-5 job. Is it his genuine passion? Does he get excited about banking and loans? Maybe. But odds are he used to be in a band growing up, or always wanted to make a movie. He just never had the chance.
The Internet allows our banker friend to finally display his ninety-minute ode to candles or bees or whatever. He can share his vision with the world, and if that's what genuinely makes him happy, now he has an avenue to pursue it and make it his life.
So what's stopping our neighbor friend from attempting to make a living off his bee opus? If he has the talent and connections, his little video might catch on. If something captures the mind of the public long enough to spread widely, it certainly could catch the attention of media professionals. Those in the shadowy cabal could very well call upon your neighbor to direct the next big summer blockbuster, based solely on his little bee film. It's unlikely, but possible.
The chance to create is now available to anyone who wants it. When producing your dream project costs less than a week's pay and makes something that can change lives, it becomes incredibly tempting to finally work on that passion you've been hiding all your life.
Greg Mercer is a junior studying video production and columnist for The Post. Send him your life's passion at gm295306@ohiou.edu
4 Opinion
Greg Mercer
