I was watching a tribute E Hollywood Story to Michael Jackson, on the anniversary of his death, and one of the dancers from his last tour said that MJ taught them "to conserve their energy". He said, "Don't give anything away for free."
When I heard this it reminded me of something one of my friends said. She said about facebook, "Everytime you get on there you give a little bit of yourself away."
I think there is something to this. There are things that we long to share, human being to human being. Sharing our thoughts and feelings is a cheap way to learn from other people's mistakes. It is a fundamental part of relationships. But, what about powerful, famous people...getting to hear their thoughts is pricey entertainment, right?
Blogging walks the fence on this one. It is my choice what to share. It is also a statement of worth; ie. I think this information is valuable, therefore I will charge you money for it. Or, I think this information is cheap, so I will give it to you for free. It is an interesting debate, is it not? Where do you stand?
Saturday, July 10, 2010
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I think there are different types of values. I mean in the monetary/economic sense, something is valuable when it's scarce. Celebrities' thoughts are "pricey" because they are scarce. However, our thoughts on our blogs are not because there are tons of bloggers out there who are doing very similar things (sort of). But I think that's only one sense of value/worth. There's also personal value. I think your thoughts/bloggings are more valuable because I know you and cherish your opinions.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you sharing information in a free public forum makes your information cheap. I like to think of it more as a public good that other people can enjoy and learn from. So I see sharing information/knowledge/thoughts as a good thing :) They shouldn't necessarily have an established value
Hmm sure glad I could bring econ into this debate...
In as much as I view my thoughts as commodities.... It is an interesting concept, though. And considering that MJ was able to conserve energy, channel it in the right direction, and make a s**t load of money, regardless of his private life's turmoil, his professional life is nothing short of brilliant! Reason for pause...
ReplyDeleteYour point is well taken Karla. I mean really, do we have to monetize everything? What happened to goodwill, generosity, and the human spirit? Where will a peaceful blogosphere exist in the information age? Blogspot is the commune of all communes. And we all know how popular communes are these days!
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