THE INTERNET KILLED AVERAGE
The impact that the internet has had on society it's more significant than we might think. It has connected the world and improved business interactions, but most importantly, it has changed the type of media we consume.
Media changes culture every day in ways large and small, but mostly in ways we don't even notice.
But the people who do notice are the people who make media, especially ways to make money.
There are two ways to make money in media:
1) Sell advertising
2) Distribution: How do we get the word out about what we want people to read, watch or listen to.
Distribution determines media, and media defines culture.
Take the book industry, for example.
Publishers used to own bookstores but soon after became independent, and the independent bookseller turned into the heart of the book industry. Due to the limited amount of physical shelf space, your goal was to make the bookseller happy because if you didn't get a slot, you didn't sell.
So, the book publishing world grew up around one simple idea: the customer is the bookseller. Making the bookseller happy meant agreeing with his terms, timing, and taste.
Things shifted again when the big book chains started to matter, as they began offering significant discounts on the books that were on New York Times's best sellers list. So the entire focus of the bookselling business was about figuring out ways to get on the list.
But then the internet came along, shifting things drastically.
Amazon's unlimited shelf space offer made the bookseller obsolete.
By being able to stock every book ever made, books with offensive titles but especially books that the bookseller didn't like, the whole distribution system changed.
This long tail, this infinite collection of books, means that the bookseller isn't the customer anymore. It means we shifted from a world where 5000 books were published every couple of weeks to a world where 5000 books are published every day. As a result, the distribution is changing what books are getting published and what books are getting read.
The same thing happened to television.
Television was granted a monopoly by governmental institutions around the world. In the U.S, every city had only a handful of stations. Three networks gathered together local stations to put together national programing. With only three networks, you couldn't afford to do edgy broadcasting cause it would mean that you lose market share, and if you lose market share, you don't make as much in advertising. So, there was a move to make things average. Average TV for average people because that's what gets distributed.
Big production budgets combined with limited distribution led to the homogenisation of American culture. As a result, most people around the world grew up watching American sitcoms about upper-middle-class white families with no real problems.
Distribution changed again with the arrival of cable.
With cable, the number of channels grew from 3 to 300. If you tried to make shows catering to the average, you lost. Therefore, distribution changed the type of shows that were being made on cable, produced for a more specific market.
But it still takes a lot of money to produce TV, and as a result, an inherent conservatism kicks in. You want to spend enough to make it good, but not too much money that you lose money. You want a precise audience, but not too small otherwise, you won't sell the ads.
And then the culture changed again. Youtube showed up, and now you can make a show for nothing. With a million or a billion channels and new videos being uploaded faster than we can watch them, the rules have changed again. Distribution changes what gets made.
Proof of that is this makeup tutorial video that has almost 125 million views and cost practically nothing to make:
Within this concept are three elements in play:
1) The filter bubble- A term coined by Eli Pariser states that when you give people a choice, they tend to consume the type of media they agree with, mainly because that's how the internet, with its recommendation functionality, allows us to process the unlimited amount of data.
2) The long tail- Chris Anderson's insight states that with an unlimited amount of options, the "hit" concept has disappeared because when you give people a choice, they will choose something that will appeal specifically to them.
3) Industry standards- Standards and self-censorship are set wherever an industry needs to deal with a tight distribution model.
The internet killed average.
By understanding the effects that distribution has on the type of media produced, we can start embracing new forms of expression. The market no longer wants average stuff for average people; it wants unique, weird and innovative stuff that only resonates with a small audience.
The internet has allowed the emergence of independent voices, talking to more people with messages they want to hear.
We have become the distribution channel, so there's no longer a need for self-curation or self-censorship to fit an industry standard. We have the responsibility of not only creating the type of media that stirs away from the mundane and safe but also moves our culture forward.