Fry not in the Spirit of Co-creation
Interesting webcast/tweet streams yesterday from the IAB Engage digital conference which Charlie Leadbeater kicked off, claiming the world we’re moving into is one where everyone can contribute and in which “you are what you share.”
Ironically Stephen Fry wrapped the day up saying that “the worst of the internet is that which is found below the blog: the comments. 90% of people who choose to comment are simply unbearable.” Fry calling these commentators “the cancer of dislike, that is a side of the internet that is deeply worrying.”
He told the audience that he can read a thousand positive tweets quite happily, but that just one will make him cry and put him off his stride for a few days, given his much publicised mood swings. He likened criticism to the way drop of urine can make a pint glass of water undrinkable.
This fear/avoidance of criticism would probably be behind his comment that he hadn’t “read a newspaper in 12 years, I hate them it’s like looking at used lavatory paper”. Given that half the ‘Save the Observer’ Facebook group were probably hanging on his every word yesterday it’s probably a good thing that the Guardian Media Group announced its survival plan the day before and before the ‘we don’t like newspapers’ group kicks off.
How bland would the world and/or the web be if it was all positive, not critical and by definition never constructive, creative or collaborative and where would it take us? One outcome is the world described in the novel Blind Faith – 1984 2.0 which I keep referring back to as our brave new world unfolds.
Stephen Fry certainly got it his way though – I don’t think I saw one critical #IABUK tweet on his contribution to the debate, sorry lecture, yesterday – the on and off line audience were clearly pretty star struck.
I Haven’t had a chance to read his actual comments yet. I agree with you though when you say it will be an awfully bland world without criticism. However I also agree with Fry that the worst of the Web can be found in what lies below the line (and in this i include all the untoward bullying on Facebook et al).
Freedom to say and do what you like when you like sounds great on paper but as we all know does not work out quite as well in reality. Filtering thoughts and tempering what comes out of ones mouth is a way of life . There has been much written about how the internet takes away or at least distorts traditional codes of behavior but i’m more interested in how online etiquette might change or should change as co-creation (often mediated by the internet) becomes a more accepted and understood practice.
In the same way that co-creative workshops often begin with the rule, ‘defer judgment’, should we not abide by this rule a little more online and not let our tongues run wild with childish abandon. I don’t think the antidote is parental discipline to stop making Mr Fry cry but a general growing up of the the internet child.