The Internet As A Creative Resource

Sun, February 01, 2009 (3 Comments)

In today’s age where a majority of people scouring the internet have a high-speed connection, gathering information for just about anything becomes a 5 minute task. Knowing this, though, it strikes me as kind of odd when people don’t use such a readily available tool for self-teaching. When a near limitless resource exists for literally anyone to tap into, it baffles me that so few people utilize it. However, the reason I think so few people do is because of the nature in which people use the internet. It seems to me that the internet has 3 main user types, and out of those 3 user types, there is overlap. I like to think of these 3 types as the Casual user, the Pointed user, and the Excessive user. To make the following statements a little easier to understand, I’ve made this handy little Venn diagram:

But First, An Overview…

So now, a brief description of each type: The Casual user of the internet is the type that has a Hotmail, or Yahoo mail account, looks at stuff on eBay, checks news every now and then, and generally just taps into the internet when they’re bored, or just catching up. This type of person usually has a job that isn’t terribly technology dependent, and has a similarly tenuous relationship with computers in general.

The Pointed user of the internet is the type that knows what the internet has to offer. If they need a recipe for dinner, they know just how to find it. The Pointed user has an agenda, and they use the internet as a tool for retrieving information they need, and are probably on it more than the Casual user. The Pointed user also probably has some sites they frequently visit, but generally, they don’t dilly-daddle; when they’re on the internet, they’re there for a reason.

The final type of user, the Excessive user, is the type that is so incredibly jacked-in to the whole thing, that if it ever went down, you’d think their life would stop. This is the type of person who has multiple mobile devices all synced to their email, and can’t go anywhere without their calendars, social media hookups, or laptop.

That said, I stress that there is nothing wrong with being in any of these types; I just bring them up to make you acquainted with my terminology, so I can get back to my point.

The Work Force In That Spectrum
I think a lot of people out there in the work force are mixes of the Casual and Pointed user (‘A’ in the diagram), or the Excessive user. The problem here, then, is that the user is either so detached from the internet they don’t know how to use it as a tool to teach themselves what they need to know, or their so attached to the internet for other frivolous things, that they lose sight of what a remarkable tool it is. In turn, these people use the internet at work for communication about work activities, like emails and calendars, and don’t use it at all for communication of ideas, or new information, which is where it really excels.

He Knows More Than You Think
The reason I write this article is because I’ve been asked many times where a lot of my software knowledge comes from, or what classes I took to learn what I now know. The answer I give is usually along the lines of: “I just poke around online reading what I can until I can figure it out,” and the response to such a reply is always some kind of minor amazement. I’ve never understood this reaction, because as I stated above, the internet exists as a silent partner in your education, and trust me, he knows more than you think. If for every question that baffles you the answer is merely minutes away after a search engine query, the practice of teaching yourself things becomes a snowball cascading down a hill, growing with every inch. The act of teaching yourself new things can almost become addictive, much in the same way that the Excessive user is attached to the internet for information on their emails, or facebook statuses. Once fully engulfed in that line of thinking, I would place the user in the ‘B’ mark on the diagram, which I would consider the optimal place to be for anyone in the creative profession.

It’s Hip To ‘B’ Square
I would suggest, if you don’t already, to try spending some time with the internet not as a means to get celebrity gossip, or update your facebook, but rather as a tool to get you real information. If there’s a certain aspect of a program that has been baffling you: look it up. If there’s a type of illustration you like but can’t master: look it up. I’m on the fence in the debate of innate talent vs. learned talents, because while I do think some people have a tendency to lean a certain way in terms of what they excel at, I also think that if anyone applies themselves towards something hard enough, they can learn it. So, in a world where all the information you could ever need is at your fingertips there really is no time like the present to hop online and start doing some research into what you want to know, because it’s all out there.