Rise of the independent

There was a time, when being part of a group was the most honored thing that you could be. It was not too long ago that everyone wanted to find a good job, stay with that job, and eventually retire from that job. But those were the days of my parents. Over my lifetime, I have seen a miraculous shift in ideals and situations. People put up with tyrannical companies for such a long time, that corporations got away with blind murder in how they treated their workers. Record labels could abuse musical artists with contracts. Retail giants could amass giant profits while crippling their employees with whatever wages they deemed fit to serve their purpose.

And along came technology. It all became something much different in such a short time. The planetary consciousness began a major shift by the year 2000. New ideas and technology began to truly have a foothold in the world as minor inconveniences were the source of providing for a need that companies were not willing to pay for. As Microsoft and Apple began creating new hardware and software for the average person, the internet took the world by storm. Windows gave birth to a new era of the self promoted. Ideas became more valuable than gold and silver, because they could create millionaires overnight.

It began in 1999 with Napster. The sharing service that revolutionized how music was distributed. Record companies, and some music artists attempted to stop Napster before it could get a foothold, but it was already too late. It had begun a revolution. It let people realize, that technology was the answer to the freedom that they all sought after. Almost overnight, CD shops were going out of business. Why bother going in to a CD shop and paying $20 for a disc that only cost the company .50 cents to make, when you can sit at your own home and pirate a copy of that same CD for free?

And then came Youtube.com No longer were people bound to trying to get television or radio networks to listen to them. No longer did they have to have a "talent agent" miraculously find them like some fairy tale. Now people who could afford a web camera were broadcasting themselves and becoming internet celebrities overnight. There were comedians who became actors, there were people who got famous for the sake of just being famous, and it was all so much easier to accomplish because the attention of mankind shifted to the internet.

And now, I sit here and wonder to myself. What will I do in honor of this new movement? I can feel my own independence is emerging from the corporate mindset. I know that I am destined for my own greatness regardless of how long it may have taken. I am ready to get my webcam and show myself to the world.