Content vs Sharing

Original content vs shared content. Think about that for a moment. We have become information and idea sharers of the most supreme level. It is not a bad thing, just different from how things were not so long ago.

I am a heavy instagram user. I love it. I love taking a photo, manipulating it and sharing it with the world. A smile comes across my face when I get a notification that someone has liked one of my images. Similar to when someone mentions you or retweets your post on twitter. Self-satisfaction that you have received approval from the someone in the larger world. I also feel that the images I create are original content. Which brings me to the opening sentence of this post.

I have seen plenty of artwork and articles re-blogged on tumblr, retweeted and re-shared and it makes me think about how many people simply pass on info or ideas without having an original piece of work. Even tonight I read an article from Etsy that redirected me another blog which re-directed me to a third blog which had the originating article.

We see this same phenomenon take place on the news – “ZNN is reporting large beings have landed in De Moines. For XYZ news I’m Les Nesman.” Don’t get me wrong I am all for sharing, I do a bit of it myself but I do think that there needs to be more original content coupled with that sharing.

Part of social media, I would argue the largest and most basic part of social media is being genuine. In other words be real, true, yourself. When all we do is re-tweet, re-share and re-blog are we being genuine? Some might say as long as you are expressing the things you like, are interested in or believe others might be interested in, than you are being genuine. What do you think? Do you think each person has a responsibility to contribute something original to the “conversation” or is acting as a distribution point sustainable?