The ultimate “content providers”…
All the attention given to Tik-Tok celebs and internet podcasters makes me laugh because I only see (admittedly, my sampling space is small!) biased opinions and outright rants from barking mongrels. (With my own noise, over at pubprogressive.com I try to be a bit more fair and rational, I must respond to the schmuck and his cronies antics and lies, correct?)
I spend a lot more time creating real content with my stories. I’ll admit that’s not streaming video or other mindless fare like computer games, but adding video or even sound takes away from the power of the words. Authors in general are the ultimate “content providers,” and the best movies Hollywood makes are based on those books. All the Mission Impossible movies are action flicks without decent plots or character development, for example. (Not to mention that Cruise is just a glorified stuntman who can’t act, but he’s better than Can’t-Act Reeves as John Wick! Storytelling is a centuries-old (maybe millennia?) that has been developed so well that other media can’t really compete.
One of my maxims for living well has always been, “If it’s a good thing, don’t mess with it!” Words are powerful and can be combined in so may ways to tell a story. They are versatile too. Readers know this. Non-readers (especially gamers and streaming video addicts) don’t know what they’re missing.
Can you get in Cruise’s character’s head? Or in an assassin’s or politician’s? You can with books! And there’s so many good stories out there that even the clever AI bots searching for new material to spit back at you go crazy with it. If this all goes away, the human race will lose something precious. All it takes is for humans to stop reading and writing, becoming passive receptors of content without much meanings.
That will be a sad day.
***
Comments are always welcome. (Please follow the rules listed on the “Join the Conversation” web page. If you don’t, your comment never sees the light of day!)
Time travel done right? You’ll see what I mean in the Time-Traveler’s Guide through the Multiverse. This sci-fi rom-com is a tongue-in-cheek saga of a couple who gets lost in the many worlds of quantum mechanics by jumping always forward into the future until they find a suitable place to call home. Who knows? Maybe all the AI bots will follow them so we can get rid of them? Available where most quality ebooks are sold.
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
