AFTER 9/11 - THE EXPLOSION OF USER-GENERATED CONTENT

In the aftermath of September 11^th, most of the world spent more time watching TV than they ever had before. The day that would live on in infamy changed the world so much. Yes, it started a war that has yet to end, but it also changed people on an intensely intimate level. The numbers of marriages and births skyrocketed as people felt a renewed sense of their own mortality and the mortality of those they loved. Many reassessed the entire way they were living their lives. One small offshoot of that reassessment was a major change in TV viewing habits.

Although likely inevitable, the decline of TV viewing in favor of more individualized pursuits was hastened by the effect of the terrorist attacks. Perhaps in an effort to regain control, whole nations started moving away from traditional television and started flocking towards internet television, DVDs, and personal video. By 2003, the DVD Camcorder was released and user-created video had become a tool of the masses. At the time of their original release, DVDs cost upwards of $15 apiece, but by the end of 2004, the price had dropped to around $0.25. Everyone who was anyone started recording their own footage.

The last few years have been unprecedented in terms of technological advancement in the television industry. After decades of slow improvements only really visible from the back-end, technology has finally made some progress that can be seen by the end user. Televisions, after more than five decades of showing inferior pictures in comparison to movie theatres, are now available in flat-screen models using LCD, DLP, and Plasma technologies. Units that once required two or three people to lift were now light enough to hang on a wall.

With the first decade of the 21^st century coming to a close, television viewing patterns are once again changing drastically. Computer monitors are larger than most televisions were just ten years ago. Millions tune in to watch a dude in a lab coat asking us, “Will it blend?”. Average Joes in average basement apartments could meet the world.

In the late 20^th century, movie makers threw out allegorical warnings of the fate that would befall those who entered the world of user-generated content. They tried to tell us that The Truman Show was not about truth, but the illusion of truth. In EdTV, they tried to tell us that this kind of television would take over our lives. They were trying to avoid the unavoidable, but the mass exodus from traditional media would not be stopped.

Reality has defied their predictions. Hollywood’s threat was that our lives would be out of control. The beauty of user-generated content is that we retain our control at all times. We get the glory of exhibitionism without the crippling loss of power. People can watch us eat and snore and chew out the grocery clerk - when we want them to. Our loyal cyber-fans meet our girlfriends before Mom does. We can show the world everything, but when we want to yell, “Cut!” we can. We are in the director’s chair, and the power is intoxicating.

With almost 80% of American adults using the internet at least once a day, the stage is set for groundbreaking changes. All we can do is watch and wait.