A simple extrapolation suggests that in the near future, everyone alive will (on average) write a song, author a book, make a video, craft a weblog, and code a program. This idea is less outrageous than the notion 150 years ago that someday everyone would write a letter or take a photograph.That's certainly a real possibility, but it seems to me that, even if we take into consideration that cyberspace has different rules than the more traditional physical space with which we're familiar, I have my doubts.
When
it was only a question of writing a letter, or taking a photograph (and is that
really a proper analogy?), there was little expectation that outside
of a small circle of friends many people would observe what we'd done. Today,
there really is an expectation that not only will we produce something, but that
others will want to see it, and it's that particular expectation that seems to
me not only mistaken, but even infeasible.