There will be two types of people: content creators and non-content creators

In the future there will be two types of people.

Either you will create content to share with the world, or you will not.

Many of us have already made the choice to share content with the world at large. We will be joined by many more.

The advantages of having a visible presence in a world awash with information will create a substantial economic and social difference between content creators and the rest.

Yet some people will not to want to share. Some won’t want to share anything about themselves beyond family and close friends. Others will be concerned about the privacy implications. They will not share of themselves to the world.

However if you choose to be a content-creator, it’s a slippery slope. Once you are sharing your voice online, be it through blogging, Twitter, social networks, videos, or other channels, the demands are intense just to keep it going. It’s fun, it’s rewarding, but it’s a commitment.

When your reputation and personal potential are driven by sharing, you do more. So as I just wrote, there can be spiralling demands from content creation.

If you choose to create content, content creation will be your life.

http://www.paulkiser.wordpress.com Paul Kiser

For some this may seem to be a very simple point, but it is a very GOOD point. You can try to have an invisible life, but in 2010 that is the equivalent of saying, “I’ve learned all I want to learn, I’ve taught I’ll I can teach, so now I wait for death.”
http://anastasiaashman.wordpress.com/about/ Anastasia

Thanks for this Ross.
@Paul: Ha, waiting for death. I don’t see it as that bleak, but I too have been thinking about these two camps and how the gap between them is widening.
As I wrote in January (http://anastasiaashman.wordpress.com/2010/01/29/magical-thinking/) , I’m afraid the future will be divided between digital natives and immigrants on one side, and a group mystified by how we know so much. I can see it’s already a problem. Until I started creating my own content on line (I started with Twitter, moved to a blog and now run a community site) I wasn’t compelled to learn much more about what was happening online, and there was little focus to my ‘web-surfing’ activities.
Creating content is more than simply a commitment to create content. It’s a commitment to join a community (more likely several) of other content creators whose journeys intersect yours.
@Drivelry

198 words?
No pressure Ross, no pressure.
http://rossdawsonblog.com Ross Dawson

Hiya Drivelry, yep the shorter the more likely it is to get done
http://blog.jackvinson.com Jack Vinson

Does it have to be completely black and white? Of course, there will always be people who only consume. But I wager that there are plenty of “content creators” who want to spend some of their time in consumption mode. I think this is similar to the discussion about participants vs non-participants (“lurkers”). We all do it at some point, I think.
http://rossdawsonblog.com Ross Dawson

Hi Jack, yes absolutely, everyone is a consumer of media in its myriad forms – never suggested otherwise. But I do think there will be a big difference between those who do things to make themselves visible and those who don’t.