Selection is an art
Selection is no doubt, in this day and age, an art form.
As the internet age rolls on, we are free to select movies that we like, music that we like, and books. There is no question that it is paramount to our identity for us to be well versed in such things as these, as they are our ticket to high socioeconomic status. In addition to that, however, our selection, for maybe the first time in history, can be sold as it's own form of entertainment. In other words, we have this great individual power to be taste makers, and that has become an art form of it's own.
The greatest example here is, of course, DJing at it's core. DJing developed from people trying to scratch and mix records, but there are several DJs who merely play other people's music without changing it and make money. The only thing they choose is the order of songs, which I find very intriguing. Can it be argued that choosing an order itself is an act of artistic value?
I think the answer is quite clear; this generation values it. Because selecting things has become a habit in this generation, googling has become a skill that can be used for money. Hell, I've even seen some wannabe clever Linkedin accounts say that they are "good at googling".
10 years ago, we would've been like, what the hell does that mean? What it really means, now, is that you are good at asking the right questions. Being good at selecting things comes down to a core question, and that question is this: what do we need right now? Do we need a song that's 128 bpm? Do we need this art show to exhibit this color of light? And, of course, you have to read the atmosphere correctly: read people correctly.
It's tricky business. Something hard to master but tremendously easy to pick up on. Which makes a bunch of people think that it is all sort of a game.
At the end of the day it comes down to empathy. You have to understand that one set of skills in one environment would be totally useless in another. The same song selection in a North American dance floor would be disastrous in a Spanish one. A shared cultural imagery would help to ascertain what is right and what is wrong for the time. Each minute you are thinking will help resolve a disappearance, an act of great nobility.
The world today is one where each thing you promote is identity politics. So if you are interested in how people perceive you, and especially if you are young, think this over very clearly. What do I want to promote? And furthermore, what do I want to select?
