You just have Internet access
Sofia Hashi | Fulcrum Staff
Something happened between 2007 and 2012. During the online-blogging boom and our need to over-share everything, something changed within us. That change is what I’d like to call the I’m-an-artist complex.
This syndrome plagues many people with a computer and access to high-speed Internet. Scrolling through blogs and re-blogs of interesting photos, breath-taking travel destinations, and inspiring quotes might be a nice way to pass the time, but it certainly doesn’t make you the next van Gogh or Hemingway. Sorry I couldn’t let you down gently, but someone had to tell you. Spending hours perusing Google images or Tumblr, trying to find a hilarious, cute, or deep photo doesn’t mean you can take credit for that photo’s existence.
The Internet culture may be one of sharing and posting on each other’s timelines and feeds, but the key word here is sharing. That clever meme? Not yours. That avant-garde, too-chic-to-be-real photo? Not yours. That sad, yet inspiring quote? You didn’t say it. You just found it.
True creativity takes time to hone and cultivate. Becoming talented at something is no easy feat either. It takes countless hours of dedication and effort. Being an artist means picking up a brush and painting; it means picking up a pen and writing; it means picking up a camera and taking a photo. It definitely does not mean sitting behind a computer screen and reposting all the pretty, motivating, or lovely images found on the World Wide Web.
When reading through a blog, most people enjoy original content. Why? Because an original thought is more inspiring, thought-provoking, and relatable than a carbon copy of an image you’ve seen time and time again. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather read about someone’s life than look at another picture of a waterfall behind some block letters that are meant to inspire me.
I’m not telling you what to put on your blogs or Facebook feeds, because that’s your space. Just know that there are better uses for your time and creativity than reblogging and reposting everything online. It might hurt to realize it at first, but when you do apply yourself in a truly creative way, the result will be something that you can really be proud of.
