4 ms·
tldr; We've all become patrons of the arts through micro-transactions. Ten years ago, I donated regularly to charities that would enable micro-funding for peop
by ideonexus 10y ago
tldr; We've all become patrons of the arts through micro-transactions.
Ten years ago, I donated regularly to charities that would enable micro-funding for people living in third-world countries. A $10 donation would buy some chickens for a woman in South America, who could turn a profit on the eggs and eventually pay the loan back. I thought it was a fantastic idea.
Today, I find I'm funding everyone's projects. I pay a $2/month for a serialized zombie radio drama I listen to on my morning run. $4/month contributes to one of my favorite weekly science podcasts. $4/month to Amazon gets me unlimited streaming music on my Alexa. I think nothing of paying $3 for a phone app I might play once or twice before getting distracted by the next shining new thing.
Culturally, even without this micro-funding, we are swamped in culture. My DeviantArt feed overwhelms me with more amazing art than I have time to appreciate. The same is true of books, shows and films both professionally-made and independent. As a result we are drowning in culture, but dividing into micro-cultures as individual. Twenty years ago, everyone had the common cultural experiences of watching the same shows and movies. Today, we no longer can take those common-cultural references for granted. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, just an observation.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- throwaway91111 10y agoBut why pay for a book when you're entertaining yourself with streaming music and zombie shows? It is killing culture; just not the culture you care about.
- PeterisP 10y agoBet really, why pay for a book when people are choosing streaming music and zombie shows as their preferred medium of culture? If anything, that's an illustration of how culture in total is growing, even if it's killing parts of the culture that you care about.
- throwaway91111 10y agoWho cares if culture is growing if you can't connect to your neighbor over it? Culture is more than just hobbies. It's about identity.
- PeterisP 10y agoThis growth allows me to connect to distant people who share my culture and identity, instead to my physical neighbor with conflicting values. It opens up cultural niches that aren't viable in smaller communities or weren't viable before - something that won't have a critical mass to grow or even exist in a city of 100,000 people can have a thriving culture worldwide nowadays. Yes, we're losing the notion of a shared monolithic identity kept together by mass media keeping "everyone" (or 3-4 major groups/demographics each) in a nation on the same page culturally. While it does mean that the society is becoming less united, this is increasing diversity and bringing the culture towards the individual differences in taste; I believe that in the end this trend is a good thing, both for the individual people and culture at large.
- throwaway91111 10y agoI suppose; I can certainly see the benefits. I don't think you're acknowledging the other side of the trade off: if you aren't interested in something popular, you're going to be effectively alone in spite of a torrent of options for interacting with others. Reducing popular culture to sub groups makes this much, much easier to encounter. My friends call this "Facebook fatigue": looking at hundreds of friends and feeling alienated because of few shared interests. Regardless, claiming that culture is "dead" or "thriving" seems to be missing from evidence.
- CaptSpify 10y agoI'd say it's a good thing. Nowadays everyone can have content that caters to their niche. It doesn't have to be "dumbed down" to fit a the common taste. When costs are low, the barrier to entry is low, and there's large enough slices of the pie to go to creators, consumers can get content that is more focused on what they want, rather than just what is available.