Is New York still the center of cultural activity in the modern world? Colleen Dilenschneider isn’t so sure.
On her blog, Dilenschneider writes about five ways in which social media is actually replacing NYC as the hub of creative development. You want the Cliff Notes version? Peep the Cliff Notes version:
1. Social Media can be accessed anywhere, connects you to anyone, and doesn’t require a super expensive closet sized apartment sandwiched between two crying babies.
2. Blog posts and online publications don’t (usually) pay. The impetus comes from an inclination to create symbolic capital. Before the advent of broadband social media, Dilenschneider argues that you needed NYC for these things. No longer.
3. Social media promotes weak ties, or connections with other artists we only know via the internet. Artists with more weak ties are more likely to “diffuse innovation” and be less susceptible to overarching artistic movements that can sometimes swallow up entire city neighborhoods.
4.C.D. argues that the gatekeepers are no longer the New York elite, but sites like Mashable and Stumble Upon that have the power to drive thousands of viewers to your site and get your work read.
5. Social media makes it so that any artist in any part of the world can add to the growing intellectual discussion. As that becomes more apparent, the desire to live in NYC will wane.
