Times Are A Changing

            Spontaneous blog alert! This morning, as I sipped on coffee and perused Facebook and YouTube, I came across a new string of rants and videos about yet another new YouTube policy that folks do not like. As I listened to Boogie2988 discuss the problems with a new copyright policy, a thought occurred to me.

            The landscape of jobs in America has changed greatly. As a people, most of us no longer worry about growing our own food. We don’t have gardens, we don’t have pastures of cows or coops of chickens. So what do we do to earn our living? Manufacturing is no longer as prominent as it once was. Technology has slowly thinned those jobs out anyway. From what I’ve seen, the application process for office jobs is highly competitive. Everyone wants to work in a comfortable room with a desk and chair, complete with a lunch hour to take at an actual restaurant. When those jobs are taken, where does that leave the rest of us?

            I’ve mentioned in a previous post about how companies like Google (which owns YouTube) and Amazon have created jobs and opportunities that did not exist fifteen years ago. In a day where jobs are scarce and hard to come by and it seems like everyone either has or is getting a college degree of some sort, what are we to do with ourselves when the work force doesn’t seem to want us? It doesn’t matter how we do it (so long as it’s legal), we just have to come up with the money to get by and pay for housing and food. So why not turn to the Internet?

            Creativity is perhaps, now more than ever, a very valuable trait to have. If we can’t do the day jobs that our parents and grandparents had, then we can create something of our own that will hopefully bring in enough revenue to provide us a comfortable lifestyle. It’s a risky venture, but times are changing and shifting so much that for some of us, we have nothing left to lose. And then the companies that we rely on to make our own way with our own creativity make these wonderful new policies that once again threaten to tear down everything we have tried to build.

            It’s such a tricky world. Can I go back to building my fort out of sheets and pillows and sipping chocolate milk while I watch Cartoon Network?

Don't Feed the Trolls

            Google, Microsoft, and Facebook have one thing in common, besides their dominant presence in our lives. They’ve all tried to give their consumers updates that the consumers did not like, Google’s being the most recent with their updates to YouTube. In addition to changing up the comments section a bit in an attempt to discourage abuse, they connected Google+ to YouTube accounts. Personally, I think this move was an attempt to save that social network which, to my knowledge, is not doing so well. In my little corner of the world, everyone is still primarily on Facebook, with some side roads into Twitterland.

            The magical thing about new technology and the rise of social media and all its affiliates is that it has created jobs that never would have existed ten years ago. People make a living by creating YouTube videos, which is amazing. The world is getting smaller and becoming more and more individualized. That works for us, and it can work against us. YouTube users who make their living off their videos are, it seems, at the mercy of Google and their marketing plans. They can lose viewers and subscribers if the wrong update comes out that drives away consumers, and it could happen. Especially if dollar signs suddenly become attached to videos.

            As a writer just barely beginning to scratch the surface of what these companies might offer me to make my dream come true, it’s a little scary. When you go the route of self-publishing, you give up more than just access to an editor. Publishing houses also do the publicity for your book, making sure people know it is out there. That publicity might seem insubstantial compared to the other millions of ads that we are bombarded with on a daily basis, but it’s still a difference.

            I opened up a Facebook page for myself as an author last week, trying to begin gathering my audience. I’ve thought about using Google+ in a similar capacity, since I now have one whether I like it or not. Plus, it connects to blogspot.com so that could be helpful for the Kelswitch in some way. The scary thing though is when companies like Facebook and Google roll out these updates that have the potential to drive away consumers, because they wanted to shove a certain requirement like using your real name down your throat. It can and will affect people like me, who connect with our consumers on a much smaller level. That includes people who make a living off their YouTube videos as well.

            The world of technology  has opened up possibilities for people like me in ways we never could have imagined and it will continue to do so. It will also continue to walk a fine line between progress and stupidity.