If you’re a person who likes to be creative, (or dreams of being creative), the internet sucks for two reasons.
The first is that it has made a lot of people feel like the goal of creating something should be views, likes, monetization, etc. In today’s world, there can be a weird pressure for hobbies to also be side hustles.
Before the internet, if you wanted to create something, you just did it because you wanted to, and that was usually the end of the story. In the early 90’s my friend Kris and I would have a blast recording “The Kris and Matt Show” onto cassettes. We knew the only people who would ever listen to these would be the two of us. The added beauty of that was that we just did whatever we thought was funniest. We weren’t ever like, “What’s gonna grab audiences?” “What are some best practices for maximizing clicks?” "What's the hot trend that will get people to share this?" I have never felt like a failure because these cassette recordings didn’t make us famous. That would be insane. After 30 years, our total number of unique listeners is still 2.
Then in college, my friend Ross and I would spend most of our free time making funny videos simply because it was the most fun thing we could imagine doing. There was still no YouTube, so the intended audience was ourselves, and maybe our family and a few friends (if they had a VCR handy.) I’ve made hundreds of videos since then over the course of my career, but it has been hard to top the pure magic of those first ones for which we had no expectations.
If YOU are a person who has been thinking about creating something: a web series, a blog, a podcast, a short story, a song, a comic strip, a Twitter account, a knit hat, whatever — but you’re worried there’s no point if no one follows it or “likes” it (or buys it from your Etsy store) — I’m here to shout that that’s *not* the point.
You don’t even have to put it on the internet. Make it for your kids or your significant other or for your future self. (I’m rewarded every couple of years when I revisit the Kris and Matt Show tapes. I still crack up at some of the stuff we came up with, but I would never recommend another soul ever listen to it.)
Worried whatever you make will be bad? It probably will be. At least at first. (Just look at Uncle Rico here.) But that also doesn’t matter! (The early works of Ross and Matt definitely weren’t going to blow any minds at Sundance. We had no idea what we were doing.). Just make something! The joy is in the creating.
Rev. Matthew R Houchin #ordained Minister
PS: The other reason the internet sucks for people who like to be / dream of being creative will be the topic of next week’s sermon.
