The Story of a 21st Century 'Somebody': Independent Culture Creation in the 2000s & 2010s

Book excerpt: For most of humanity, most people were destined to live and die anonymously. To be 'somebody' in this world, a somebody whose opinions would be heard in any way beyond close friends, was a privilege very few had enjoyed. In this environment, there would eventually be no point for most people to continue to think of themselves as a 'unique individual'. It surely looks amazing in hindsight, how far we have come in less than two decades. This book is primarily about my journey to become a ‘somebody’ with something to say. Topics covered include how technology has enabled people like myself to have a voice, what it feels like to join the cultural conversation and take cultural stances, and participating in politics and the ‘culture wars’ through citizen journalism. I will also examine the bigger cultural impacts of this democratization of culture creation. Throughout this book, I will be telling my own story so far, as a cultural voice in this rapidly changing world. But I will also be illustrating the wider story of how profoundly the world changed, in these first two decades of the 21st century. The technology changed first, and that was groundbreaking enough, but I think that the greatest change was in the culture.