Since the emergence of the Internet it’s clear that it has become a hot bed 
for creativity in all forms, with creative expressions like culture jamming, web designs and new web applications.
However, this creative fire could be snuffed out in a matter of years according to Jonathan Zittrain author of the novel of The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It. Zittran believes that the generativity of the internet, which is basically the internet’s ability to produce unanticipated change through the contributions from its audience. Will begin to become non-generative or a sterile appliance that is tethered to a network.
While reading this book, I’m trying to make sense of his arguments and decide for myself where the internet is heading. Although I haven’t quite made up my mind as of yet. It would suck to live in a world where you couldn’t tweak or hack into the gadgets companies create. We wouldn’t be able to improve the product or customize it to our own liking, we would be stuck with just the programming provided by the company.
It seems to me like creativity and the internet have become synonymous terms in recent years. Mainly due to the lack of boundaries the internet has, thus giving more creative wiggle room for those who use the internet as a creative outlet. By not having censorship rules the idea of freedom of expresion is utilized and practiced ubiquitously all over the web.
Zittrain also mentions the two benefits of generativity as and innovative output, where new things are improved to better people’s lives, and the second is participatory output, the belief that a life well lived is one which thee is opportunities to connect with other people,work with them and express ones own individuality through creative endeavours.
The innovative output on the web today would be in the form of websites like Facebook where you can connect with people around the world, from early childhood or even the people you just met. We have online journals and newspapers, where people can learn and educate themselves about the world around them. As for the participatory output we have blogs as well as video blogs, where we as citizens can voice our opinion about whatever we like and share it with others who feel the same way, or share our common interest.
Thanks to the creativity of a handful of individuals, we have all kinds of outlets for creativity that can be distributed globally and receive recognition for it. This creativity has given the general public a chance to market themselves on websites like Facebook and MySpace, and get a foot in the door of the industry of their choice.
Without this kind of freedom and accessibility that the internet combined with creativity generates from the average individual, we would be stuck in a place where the internet would be regulated and controlled, thus making the public limited in terms of its creative capability.
I wonder what would be the new creative outlet if the internet did become regulated by major corporations. Would artists and aspiring artists return to their traditional roots of artistry or would they sell out and work for the companies creative design department? Would we see more artwork on buildings and street corners rather than on web pages?
Whatever the future holds for the relationship between the internet and the individuals creativity, I hope that it continues to grow so that we can see new and innovative forms of creativity emerge and enrich our culture, and weaken the desire for control over creative expression.
