One of my favorite friends is a TV show producer. He used to be a high roller.
These days you mostly find him complaining about how YouTube is taking his lunch money. You should hear him. The youth is all going to online media and nobody is buying TVs or traditional media subscriptions. He says that traditional media is completely freaking out, behind closed doors. The writing is on the wall. He’s now trying to learn how to get his own thing going on YouTube, starting from zero. His previous credentials, worth nothing in this new world.
The Internet is creating a meritocracy for content producers.
I have journalist friends who are saying the same thing. The Internet is taking their lunch money as well. Journalism is quickly becoming about merit instead of owning the distribution channel.
Merit over who you know, quality over institutional blessings.
Health discussion too is starting to be affected. Traditionally you have doctors, to no small degree, attached to profit seeking corporations. Hospitals work to generate profit. Drug companies work to generate profit. There is no health care without profit (or at least, not anywhere near enough of it).
This too is quickly changing in just the past few years.
You see quite a bit more non traditional, prevention and healing minded health advice coming to us these days. Individuals with useful insights can leverage social media and personal blogs to multi-million people followings. You have bestselling authors without fancy titles, without institutional-corporate approval, giving us far better options than things like the governments badly flawed “food pyramid”.
Optometry is still more sheltered today than your average cable channel, or newspaper corporation. Or even things like food, which are still more interesting than something boring like glasses. Optometry which remains content to provide zero answers, show zero interest in prevention, and largely oppose the discussion about actual eyesight health.
Cheers,
-Jake
