Andy Warhol is long gone but his infamous tomato soup cans and quote about everyone getting 15 minutes of fame live on.  The Internet has proven him correct.  Now everyone wanting to vent their spleen has the ideal vehicle for doing so with social media. 

The Internet is the ultimate in Pandora’s Box – open it up and all kinds of nasty things come flying out.  And yet hope is still left inside… maybe.

The record/music industry has been decimated by the Internet and “free music.”  Sound Exchange is their answer to that problem but all it has done is further screw all the labels’ artists (even more than the labels have)  and driven countless Internet Radio stations into becoming pirates and not paying any royalties or licensing fees at all.  Why do you think all the old rock n’ rollers are still out touring?  They need the money – it’s not ego.  They’re not getting royalties like they used to.

The publishing industry is no better off.  Not even the Covid pandemic has been able to revive reading the way it was before the Internet.  Now everything has to be broken down into tiny bite-size pieces with lots of pictures and on the Internet.  eBooks may be the rage and self-publishing on the rise, but the underlying question is whether or not anybody is actually reading anymore or in even more cases, even able to read at all and comprehend.

Network television is on the ropes and has been for years because of cable television and now Internet streaming services are overtaking them both. Talent is spread so thin now between all the productions that it’s not existent. The pandemic has stalled the demise of network television just yet because so many people were stuck in their homes but now that people are back out and about, the demise is back on.

Ditto for the move studios.  People could go to the theatres to see movies and when everything migrated to the Internet, the hassles and expense of going to the movies.  Get a large enough television screen to cover an entire wall of your house and you don’t need to go out to see movies anymore…

Go to a mall anymore?  Why?  Just look online and order something to be delivered to your door within an hour and there you are.  Hungry?  Do the same thing – order it online.  Why you should never have to leave your house again… how convenient.  That means more time online and less of the real world.

Speaking of real, is everything on the Internet real?  Just because you saw it on the Internet is it the truth?  If you believe it is, then I have a bridge that connects Manhattan and Brooklyn you may be interested in buying… that or some radioactive real estate or faulty life insurance…

Well, looks like my time on this soapbox is up – gotta leave time for the next person to vent their spleen.  Just remember – the more things change – the more they stay the same.

Dain Schult - www.dainschult.com