Here Comes Everybody
April 26th, 2008
Clay Shirky’s latest post really hit me hard. I found it very uplifting.
When I was young, I wasted the same hours that Clay did in front of the television*, so I think it’s positive that kids are on their computers and phones, destroying the English language. A lot of my current lot in life comes down to Internet participation. I’ve gotten jobs, contributed to open source, made friends, made enemies, had wonderful intellectual conversations, written incredibly stupid and hurtful things, published my thoughts, had a recording of myself making an incredibly nerdy speech circulated on YouTube, found an apartment that came with roomates who became friends, answered random craigslist ads, helped someone out of a jam, damaged my permanent record, done things I’m proud of, done things I regret, traveled to far away places, lost my shit, acted holier-than-thou, reviewed restaurants, given noise-canceling headphone product advice, sent random email, had a black hat phase, and contributed to a community. I would do it again.
A lot of this happened in “spare time”. At least I wasn’t watching television.
* Mary Ann is way hotter. How could it even be a debate?
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