“Oh, look! Performance art! How *pretentious*!”
I get some of that feeling from sites like The Fray and many of the people who write for it. Despite this, inevitably, I once again find myself wanting to Be Like Mike, or whatever.
I could presumably avoid this spiral by never going anywhere on the net but Salon.com and to the pages of people I actually know, but gosh, what’s life without a little angst, or something?
Or maybe it’s just that I really want to use teeny tiny fonts on my webpage and my moral superiority won’t let me do it. :)
If you’re levelling the criticism that a lot of the “artier” work on the web is pretentious, and that the audiences are too uncritically accepting of whatever’s churned out, I’d strongly agree with you.
But I think putting anyone up on a pedestal, whether to admire them, tear them down, or both, is illusory. No one I’ve encountered in the realm of self-expression on the web has ever thought themselves *better* than anyone else, and all it takes to make a medium better is to participate in it, usually.
To put it more succinctly: Fray, along with most other sites I know, welcomes submissions, and if you don’t like what you see, contribute. Or make something of your own that’s better. Then we all win.
*laugh* I can’t make something of my own that’s better. That’s why I’m bitter. :)
Actually, I think what I am is partly inspired and largely depressed. I *do* put other designers on a pedestal, although I hadn’t intended to do so for the purpose of tearing them down (that _is_ pretentious. and lame). The Fray inspired me years ago to start doing more artistic things with my website, but I’ve never felt I’ve been able to live up to the standards I’ve seen on Fray and its contributors’ sites.
Which is probably what I should have said in the first place. Sorry for being a jerk. :P