Protein^®

The internet has done a fabulous job of facilitating the world of the niche and I've started to think it's changed it. It used to be that people with hobbies sat in dark rooms and toiled away on their own private post-work side interest. I quite liked this charming solitary behaviour.

Now they meet on Etsy and Flickr, share tips and sell their goods. Yes, sell them. When I was a bit younger if a friend of yours could knit, he / she would make you a scarf and you'd be super grateful. Now you have to visit their online shop.

While this is great for their self confidence and ego I wonder how much it changes the work and the complex nature of social captial. Would Henry Darger have made different work if people had seen it? I'd wager he would. While this could just be me ranting about money destroying everything I do think that something is being lost is this rapid transformation of the the fringe.

This is potentially great for knitting communities and making people feel 'part of something' but I wonder how much has been lost from families doing this for one another and the such. Yes, social networking and widgetised embeddable mini online shops are great but has it turned a lot of good will into more capitalism? Yeah I know, flag being raised. And does this matter anyway? Is this all just part of our digital consumer revolution / evolution.

Social currency is far more powerful that money. We had better not loose it to digital dog walking groups and online cash swapping.

Full disclaimer; I love hand made goods, Flickr, eBay and Etsy. As you can see, this one has me at crossed purposes.