Storytime

There is an interesting article on MSNBC about the increasing emphasis on artistic skills in business due to the abundance of well-manufactured, inexpensive goods. To be functional is no longer good enough. These days a toilet plunger has to connect with you on a personal level in order for you to buy it, because all things being equal, any plunger will do the job. It is now the job of the businessperson not to create a better plunger, but to create a concept of the plunger that resonates with the common person, so they in turn can become a part of the plunging story.

Now the example may be foolish, but the underpinnings of the article are not if you consider the power that stories and mythology have in society. Sometimes I wonder if this blog is an attempt in some way to create a story about myself, one that will resonate with future employers and friends so they are compelled in some way to form relationships with me. Friendster and Flickr and MySpace and LiveJournal are all online entities that solely exist to facilitate the creation of personal mythologies in this manner, albeit in a strictly social context.

Rather makes me wonder if we are all just selling ourselves to each other, and if that’s the way it has always been.