Quantity Culture

Most people would tell you that the creation of the internet instigated the shift in how we consume and create content today. But I think the shift started much sooner than that, and that the real stimulus was made out of cardboard. I think that it all started with the disposable camera.

Out of nowhere in1986, disposable cameras hit the scene. They’re easy to use, cheap, and the quality sucks but who cares. We became snap-happy almost overnight.  For the first time, everyone felt compelled to take pictures of everything. The device was throwaway, so the pictures in a sense became throwaway too, every snap was less meaningful then the one before it. Then digital cameras of course, their effect has been both devastating and beautiful to photography. We take more pictures in one night now then we used to take in an entire month.

Fast forward 20 years and we are now a culture of snippets and snacks in everything we consume, from news, to images, to dialogue, and we’re more prolific because of it. Consider the sheer volume of content that we’ve produced over the past 10 years thanks to the internet and shared voice. Everyone is a creator now (hell, even I am), and the sheer volume makes it all less special. It makes most of it throwaway.

And don’t get me wrong, I think that we still appreciate good literature, good music, and good movies. And I’m not saying that the 80’s or 90’s were anything special from an artistic or content standpoint either. We now just want and expect less from each piece of content we consume, so that we can spend time absorbing more content in general. I can’t imagine that we prefer quantity to quality, but I think that quantity has actually become a new kind of quality. And I think it’s great.

Comments

[Michael Calienes]

what you talk about is why i didn't find you sooner than today. the aig post made me dig. i'm here now -- like it or not. keep tappin'. great insights.

[Terry Ni]

J, you're right about the quantity being a "new kind of quality" but crap content will still be ignored and good/unique content will still be consumed, hence why Kevin Rose's Digg works so well. The Digg power users helps me sort through the crap.