My Cognitive Surplus

I watched a fascinating video clip of Clay Shirky at the 2008 Web 2.0 Expo that I felt compelled to share (you can watch the video clip below). The talk that he gives at the Expo is about the cognitive surplus that exists in society and how that surplus is being carved out by social media which he refers to as an "architecture of participation". He talks about the cognitive surplus that has been created by our modernized economy since the end of World War II and how that surplus has been managed and controlled by passive media. Now, in the twenty first century, we are witnessing a social shift due to the fact that society is waking up from its stupor of merely consuming media and wants to participate with it. While this is fascinating as it relates to the role of media and information in society, this is not the reason for this post. I feel that the same principles that Shirky discusses in the context of media, have relevance for me and for people despite their relationship with social media.

"Doing something is better than doing nothing". Shirky argues that spending hours in your basement playing World of Warcraft is better than mindlessly watching TV. Why? Due to the level of participation. Now, I do not think that spending time playing WOW is a worthwhile use of my time or my cognitive surplus, but neither is TV. But let's break outside of the confines of media to pursue this line of argument further. The assertion is that producing is better than consuming and that sharing is better than absorbing. Almost everyone has a cognitive surplus that they consciously (or unconsciously) decide to spend engaging in a variety of activities--most of them passive consumption rather than active production.

I was a dance major in college and while I believe that I have lost the desire to dance professionally, there is an essential quality of dancing that I miss greatly--the act of creating. I created 8 pieces of choreography my senior year of college. While none of them would be considered masterpieces by any standard, I held an enormous amount of satisfaction in that achievement. Since graduation, I have lost my creative nature. I don't necessarily mean in the entirely artistic sense either. I mean it in the sense that I no longer engage in the act of creating whether that is creating a dance, a flower garden, or a blog post. When you are involved in the act of creating you are not just producing for the sake of production but you are acting with purpose.