Gutenberg’s Relevance to New Media and the Purpose of Blogging

From Wikipedia: “Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (c. 1398 ? February 3, 1468) was a German goldsmith and printer who is credited with being the first European to use movable type printing, in around 1439, and the global inventor of the mechanical printing press. His major work, the Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible), has been acclaimed for its high aesthetic and technical quality.”

There are moments in history that define an age. Gutenberg experienced one when he produced his Bible. Gutenberg represented a progressive change in society and culture. He brought about a shift, if you will, that has had a lasting impact on all that we do. I like to visit Borders frequently – daily if possible, but usually once a week or so. I like to stand on the top step going up to the coffee shop and look out across the aisles and aisles of books. Millions of volumes of knowledge have been produce in the last four centuries, and thousands of new books are published each year. Gutenberg defined ours as a “print society” by his work.

Fast forward to 1990 and see the first web site. Yes, that’s right, 1990 – eighteen years ago. If that does not shock you with the reality of the rapidity with which the modern world advances, you’re stuck in the 80’s. This is a new age. The “information age” was a premature underestimation of the power of the world wide web. I don’t know that there’s a word to describe it, but I think we could hint at it by calling this the “connected age.”

I’ve often said that the internet began as a web to which we could connect, get information, then disconnect. What was that old thing called? Dial up? Today, it’s a cloud. Touch the weather icon on the screen of a GPS-enabled iPhone and you’ve got the seven day forecast for the exact spot where you’re standing.

It’s not surprising that the web has developed an economy within itself. We speak of the economy on local, national, and global levels. But we fail to realize how much the online world is an economy unto itself. This has produced an atmosphere of anonymity where one can work from home by staying connected to the cloud that is the world wide web. You can blog, consult, design, sell, and market online in your PJ’s and earn an honest living. There’s nothing wrong with that. But within this new online economy is a severe poverty as well.

This online poverty can’t really be measured in monetary terms, as the internet is one place a web site can exist that has no financial purpose at all. For zero dollars, you can have an online home somewhere on the web – and that’s a good thing. Poverty online, in my estimation, is not so much a poverty of finance, but a poverty of purpose.

Yesterday, I stopped at a gas station that contained some slot machines. I watched a dozen or so people feed dollars into machines and mindlessly press a button over and over and over. Their faces were expressionless – they were cold and dead on the inside and sacrificed their purpose and hope on the altar of the possibility of that one big hit that may or may not ever come. And even if it came, even if they walked away rich for a day, they would have produced nothing of lasting value for themselves or anyone else.

Every day, hundreds of thousands of people send spam, post affiliate links, write on message boards, buy another domain in hopes that they’ll hit and walk away rich for the day. This reduces the value of blogging. I get “followed” on Twitter by people who don’t know me and don’t care about what I do – they just have something I should click on. Just as Gutenberg inadvertently invented the possibility of the publishing of trashy magazines, the internet has afforded us the perfect environment for self-absorption, for financial leeching, and for pointless banter in the name of dollars.

What does Gutenberg have to do with the open media revolution and the purpose of blogging? Everything, in my opinion. Gutenberg decided that the first thing published with 42 characters of movable type would be the Bible – the most meaningful piece of literature ever penned. It inspires hope and purpose in all who trust its message. I’m not writing this blog to debate the value or validity of the Bible (as that’s settled firmly for me). Rather, I hope to call us back to purposeful web engineering. In our content, our design, even in our economizing of the web, let us instill purpose.

Poverty exists in the real world where hope dies and purpose is extinguished. We live at the beginning of a new age – a brave new web wide world – a globally connected culture. Let’s build it with purpose. I can’t decide what you will create, design, or write about. But I can issue a challenge to do it with meaning. You can’t take wealth with you to the grave. If it comes, wonderful, but don’t live for it. Blog with purpose.

photo credit: wilhei55

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