The Internet is amazing.
I’m not just saying that as a young person who gets her kicks watching funny youtube videos and reading fanfiction at three in the morning. The Internet makes a lot of worldwide communication possible and opens up doors you would never imagine.
Take my aunt for instance. She is a scrap-booker—a very talented and detail oriented scrap-booker—who happens to live on a farm in the middle of Texas with her husband and their infinitely growing family of dogs, donkeys and goats. I can’t say if scrap-booking has always been a hobby for her, but since they moved out to the farm about seven years ago, she’s been making amazing scarp-books and cards.
A few years ago, my aunt decided to start a blog, Stamps, Paper and Donkey Smiles, about her creations, taking pictures of them and describing the process to others. And it grew over the first year or so, picking up fellow crafters who wanted to see what she was creating. She started using these unique little European stamps and created some beautiful cards with them that all her followers raved about. It started out as just a hobby but not long after that, everything changed.
The maker of those stamps, a woman called Heidi, contacted her one day, and offered my aunt a job distributing those stamps to people all over the United States because she was so impressed by the care my aunt put into coloring and designing each of her cards.
I can’t help but be stunned by my aunt’s story. Her use of the internet turned her simple hobby into a job opportunity that allows her to continue doing what she loves from the comfort of her home. This is why the Internet is so intriguing. It has the power to connect people worlds apart and change individuals’ lives. Sure, most of the stories you hear are the horrors, the ones where internet addictions drag people into despair, but I think those are the exceptions. Maybe I’m just being an optimist, but I think in the right hands, the Internet can be the source of many huge, beneficial changes for society, be they in the realm of creativity, or not.
I really enjoyed reading this post! It’s amazing how easy it is to express your creativity online, and how possible it is for others to discover your work. This is a great example of how the internet isn’t always a dangerous or bad place to express yourself. It’s a powerful tool for anyone who has an idea they want to share.
ReplyDeleteThat is so cool that your aunt turned her hobby into a job, without even trying. This story really does portray the Internet in such a good light, which is rare these days. It is amazing how someone's hobby can become a job.
ReplyDeleteI love how you have a personal connection to a story like this about the internet. The web makes hobbies not only something that can be shared with others, but something that can be discovered by others as well. Your aunt might never have had such a great opportunity had she not been able to post her stuff on the web so that "Heidi" could find it. You made a great point with this article. Well done!
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