The Great Prosumer: Everything I Read I Write

As I was reading “Citizen Marketers” today, I realized that the book’s subject – prosumerism – has pervaded my most intimate moments: reading. I no longer read; I read-write. I read a book or a magazine and inevitably turn to the laptop to make a few notes or type in the draft of a blog post. I cannot just consume anymore - I feel an ever-present pressure to produce. Consuming is only good when it leads to production, says the personal brand voice in me. The reverse surely isn’t true: Intrinsically motivated, I write blog posts for a black-hole audience that is disproportionately small compared to my eager output, and probably not even loyal. In fact, is not even the same audience: the average of 500 strangers that come to my blog every day are most likely 500 different strangers every day.

This asymmetry doesn’t keep me from generating content: The new read-write culture has chained me to the laptop at all times. The delta between consumption and production has been abolished, and the time between contemplation and action has shrunk to a brief guilty moment of Zen. Reading means writing. Everything I read is a feed which I then instantly turn inwards out and broadcast. Inspiration is a permanent presence, an aggregate state not a single unique moment. Content generation is my modus operandi. “Interestingness” is my sine qua non. Absorbing means expressing. I’m an “osmoser,” a personal aggregator who synthesizes meaning in the very moment he absorbs it. My productivity is the lowest when I write; it’s the highest when I read. Such is life in the times of social media: I’m just one of many professional amateurs - a lonely number but a happy social medium.

Comments

[Dan Schawbel]

I agree. It seems like every good piece of content is syndicated in multiple sites. It's about reading stories and then writing your own stories.