Tag: TED

If you’d like to, listen to this interview from NPR’s Fresh Air which aired yesterday.

During that interview with David Guarascio, Moses Port and Sameer Gardezi linked above, they got to talking about how they worked together on a radio show while in college, although the radio station wasn’t actually accessible anywhere off campus. That, along with a crappy timeslot, gave them very few listeners. They described it as “existential radio theater” where they would keep trying to get people to call in, and give them some indication that someone was listening.

First of all, that’s an incredible phrase. Secondly, I got to thinking about it, and that’s largely what people do on the internet. Blogs are great examples (this one less so than others, but still). For the most part, blogs don’t get read, and even when they are, you can usually count the amount of readers on your hand. So why do we do it? Why do we keep creating even when we know no one will see it?

I saw a video of Larry Lessig’s talk from this year’s TED today, and in it he suggests that is just what our generation does. Granted, he expresses this idea far more eloquent than I have (next to Steve Jobs, Larry Lessig is my favourite person to watch speak) but the point is still the same. Our generation plays a much more active role in culture – blogs are just an extention of this.

…

…Right?