Web of talent or mediocrity?

The age of technology has opened up a plethora of opportunities for content creation, be it blogging a novel, new recipes or posting your salsa 

remix dance moves on YouTube. But is technology helping the mediocre appear extraordinarily creative? 

Santosh Desai, CEO, Future Brands, compares the situation to a creative churn. “Because of the Internet, people who thought they could never write can now do so. Those who could not dream of drawing can now do so. It’s not about whether the output is good or bad, a churn will throw up vish (poison) as well as amrit (nectar). The important thing is that the more the number of variables in the churn, the better it is for creative forces,” he says. 

Sidharth Rao, CEO of online marketing firm Webchutney, agrees. “The innate adaptive quality of the Internet, which allows users to personalize the medium and shape it, based on individual personalities, lends an opportunity for it to keep pace with changing trends and nurture creativity.” 

But there is the flip side. “Doesn’t higher productivity come at the cost of creativity?” asks Surya Ramkumar, who blogs regularly on technology. “When there are so many external ideas crowding our mind through the Internet, are we not less inclined to come up with our own?” 

Probably, says comic book artist Sarnath Banerjee, adding that it’s very easy to get sucked into the mesh of technology. “I have often spent entire nights watching YouTube or playing online chess and regretted it in the morning,” he chuckles. “But overall, new media has opened up different ways of thinking, and different ways of creating content. For example, I still hand-draw my comics, but I have more flexibility in setting up the page.” 

Many believe it is not technology that is at fault but the way it is used. Does it encourage intellectual laziness, for instance? “With a click of a mouse, we can access a whole body of work on almost any topic,” says Ramkumar, “which may have made the process of content creation easier... but also means that one can start something without thinking it through.” 

But this does not necessarily lead to mediocrity, says Banerjee. “For instance, a mature internet user... knows how to use it, when to stop and how much of the vast availability to avail.” 

Finally, it all boils down to the person and not the medium, says ad guru Alyque PadamseeZ. “Technology doesn’t lead to mediocrity among brilliant people. But, if you are dumb, you will remain so, in spite of all the technology helping you.”