Staring into the Webmonster

A speculation on the nature of those who access the internet

Defining those who access the internet as individual people, there are more than a few different groups, which of course have plenty of overlap. There are the Content Generators, folks who make art, comics, animation, writing, and a million other original mediums. These Content Generators may or may not use the net as their primary medium - it may just be a secondary channel/distribution for their creations. But they are actively making new stuff.

There is some overlap between the Generators and the following group, when it comes to a place like Wikipedia. There, people actively create content, but the content they create is only a compilation of knowledge that is "universally" accepted.

So there are Content Compilers, who are people who gather specific themes of the content generators, and with a small synopsis, highlight what has been created. These folks might also be called Content Pushers, since some of the heaviest traffic flows through them, and out towards the smaller places where Content Generators are working.

And we have the Content Consumers, who are often more than just an audience - altho that is the predominant trait. Everyone on the internet is a member of this group. The consumer is quite an unpredictable beast, because at nearly any point in surfing anything on the web, the consumer can stop and write a response to some post or creation, and become a content generator, or copy the information onto their personal web-space, and become a content pusher...or they could buy something, and become a totally different type of consumer.


I was hoping there would be something more dramatic and insightful in this little post, but that's it. Generating content is extremely satisfying, and the most useful of uses of the internet. But it takes a lot of energy...and finding something someone else has made to read, or watch, or hear, is as easy as moving a finger. Of course, finding something that someone else has created that is actually good...that's a whole 'nother issue.