tumblrfolk, we are so much more skilled than we think
one thing I want to say today relates to my current job. (As you guys know, Iâve left off working in science labs to work an office job in sci comm. My role is kind of ⊠nebulous and involves a lot of âoh, Elodie can help you with that, she does weird stuff. Train Elodie on that.â)
Because itâs an office job, the mentality is for everyone to present their workflows as incredibly difficult and skilled, requiring a lot of training and experience to do properly. Which is fair enough! These skills are difficult!
âElodie, today we are going to train you to use⊠A HIGHLY COMPLICATED AND DIFFICULT WEBSITE INTERFACE. You will need to take a lot of notes and pay careful attention, because it is extremely advanced. ARE YOU READYâ
â⊠This is Wordpress.â
ââŠNo it isnât! it says something different at the top. And itâs very complicated, itâs not something you can just know already.â
âNah son, donât worry, itâs Wordpress. I mean, God knows I donât blog much, but I can manage me a bit of Wordpress, itâs cool.â
âNo. You canât. Donât worry, itâs very difficult. Now sit still and be trained on how to upload a photo to Wordpress.â
âElodie, do you think that you can MANAGE SOCIAL MEDIA? It is INCREDIBLY HARD and may involve THE HASHTAGSâ
â⊠I think Iâll manage.â
âElodie, can you put a HYPERLINK in a thing? Think about it before you answer.â
âIs it like a BBCode kind of thing, with the boxy bracket things, or do you want it in HTML, with like angley bracket things?â
âIt is a button that you press that says HYPERLINK.â
âI can do this thing for you.â
âElodie, can you write a punchy summary that will make people want to click on a special link that says âread moreâ to read all of the text?â
âElodie, this is how to use TAGS on CONTENT. TAGS on CONTENT are important because - because of THINGS. Things that are too arcane and mysterious for anyone below the level of Manager to know.â
âCool, I can tag stuff for you.â
âElodie, this is obviously a ridiculous question, but can you edit videos?â
âNot very well, and only if you want to make it look like there is sexual tension between characters from different forms of visual media, or perhaps to make a trailer for a fanfiction? Which is not necessarily a good use of my time and Iâm not sure why I felt it was so cool to do to begin withâŠâ
âActually, upon further reflection: no. No. Nope. I canât edit videos. Theyâre completely beyond me. Not in my wheelhouse. Hate videos. Hate them. No innate skill whatsoever.â
âThatâs what we thoughtâ
âElodie?! You can use PHOTOSHOP?!â
âYeah, I mean, I usually just use Pixlr. Itâs free, itâs online, itâs powerful, you donât have to download anythingâŠâ
âbut you are not a GRAPHIC DESIGNER!!â
âEr⊠no.â
âNext youâll be telling us you can MAKE AN ANIMATED PICTURE.â
âI mean, I havenât really done a lot of it since Livejournal, and they werenât that good anyway, but yeah⊠I can do you reaction images.â
What Iâm trying to say is: a lot of people talk a lot of crap about what we Millenials do on the Internet, because there is NO CAPITALISTIC VALUE in the screwing around we do with our friends. âUghh why are you ALWAYS on the computer?â our parents whined.
âHow did you make the text go all slanty like that?â our bosses wonder.
We have decades of experience in Photoshop. We know how to communicate; we can make people across the planet care about our problems. We know how to edit media to make two characters look like theyâre having the sexual tensions. We can make people read our posts, follow us, share our content. We run and manage our own websites - and make them pretty. We moderate conversations, enforce commenting policies, manage compromises, lead battles, encourage peace, defend ourselves from attack, inspire others, and foster incredible levels of communication.
We produce our art. We advertise our art. We engage with others through our art. We accept constructive criticism and dismiss destructive trolling of our art. We improve our art. Our art gets better.
All by ourselves. Our pretty blog backgrounds, custom-edited themes, tasteful graphics, punchy content, clever gifs, our snappy putdowns and smart-ass text posts, even our familiarity with fonts and composition - all of these skills weâve casually accumulated for fun/approval are MINDBLOWING LEVELS OF COMPETENCE IN THE WORKFORCE.
When these skills are sold to you - when theyâre packaged and marketed, and when you pay to consume them and have the Elders rate you on them - they are incredibly valuable. They are Media and Communications degrees. They are marketing internships. They are leadership workshops. They are graphics design modules. They are web design courses. They are programming courses. We are good at this shit; we have it nailed down.
You canât put âfandomâ or âbloggingâ on your CV, but you deserve to. You should get this credit. You should claim this power and authority.
Claim these skills. They are valuable. They are important.
Everything you have ever done is a part of your powerful makings.