I realized shortly after waking up that my nap had cost $35/hour.
Myself and my good friend and music partner, Dean, were recording in Studio 107 in London, Ontario. It was a small studio in a house but the entire thing had largely been converted into a proper recording studio.
We spent thousands of dollars there. Recording demos and proper releases.
We’d drive home back to Stratford (around 45 minutes) listening to a cassette of our work for the day. I remember vividly playing the final master mix of our cassingle (you heard me). It sounded great. The best ever.
Now, we only had to get it into people’s hands, so they could get it into their ears (and hearts where they would adore me).
So… at the time, that meant getting the names and addresses of people we were sending to. Then prepping individual physical copies of the cassette, typing out a letter, getting a bubble wrap envelope, heading to the post office, filling out customs forms for any out of country packages, and then paying yet more money.
Then… waiting.
In contrast, this past Thursday I had an idea for a song called “Elon Musk”. I spent the morning writing and recording it, posted it in the afternoon and before bed it had been listened to by thousands of people all over the world.
I’m not sure we fully get the power we have these days. You used to just consume media. It was totally separate from regular people, but now…
You are the media.
That power, to paraphrase Spiderman’s uncle, comes with a lot of responsibility. I don’t think we get that yet.
People, like Elon Musk, champion ‘free speech’ and that is… well, first it’s an American thing. We do ‘Freedom of Expression’ here in Canada. They’re similar in that the gist is that you mostly can’t get in trouble with the government for saying what you want to say. Whether you’re an oppressed voice or simply a billionaire jackass.
And that’s great and incredibly important… however, when your words on social media can be broadcast around the world in the matter of a single second, I think you should think twice about what you’re putting out there.
Your words can and, most times, do have an impact on someone somewhere.
A throwaway comment can turn into proof for a bad argument. Of course, the burden of determining what is and is not fact or reliable information falls on the reader… but that determination can be decided in error if the account has a lot of followers, a blue checkmark, or lots of engagement.
That phone in your pocket is a radio station, a newspaper and a TV network.
Don’t blame the media… these days, you are the media.
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