Cerebra

Imagine a world with no colour. Everything a lifeless, dull, shade of grey. No bright hues to distract the eye and stimulate the brain. A dreary existence where beauty is rare and boredom is a disease everyone is plagued with. This is a world without multimedia. This is what the Internet could have been.

The human being has always been a visual animal. We react to physical stimuli quite readily and a large proportion of this stimulation comes through the optic nerve. Naturally, the tools we produce and use need to be visually appealing. While some would say that functionality is important, any wise designer will tell you that if its ugly, nobody is going to like it. This is what has prompted the growth and development of the World Wide Web into the powerful media content provider it is today. While many of us are able to assimilate and understand complex information from text, a more visual medium often opens the mind in ways the written word cannot.

Another important human trait is our need to express ourselves. Whether it be verbally or artistically, the human mind has to make its content known to other human minds (within reason of course). You might deny the fact that you are a creative individual, but the moment you open your mouth and begin to speak, you have essentially kick-started a creative process.

The basic need for visual stimulation and creative outlet has lead to the development and evolution of numerous technologies. The Web may have started as a text-based information exchange mechanism, but it would never have attained popularity in any form if there had never been a visual element added to it.

When we bring these three elements together (the technology, the human need for visual stimulation, and creative expression) we have the ingredients for the multimedia soup that the Internet has become. The positive upshot is that the Internet is no longer just a place to get information. It has become an outlet for visual creativity. Whether you are using YouTube, Flickr, or you are vlogging your exploits, a new level of content creation has been added, and even the most computer illiterate amongst us can participate positively in growing the information super-highway.

Art and design have always played a major role in world history. Creating a rich tapestry of who we are and what we do is an integral facet of the human psyche. Allowing us to express ourselves using more than just words, new careers are being built on a daily basis, and the availability of this media means that artists, musicians, and film makers can grow their fan bases at a much faster rate than ever before. It is worth your time to explore these creative outlets, if not to participate yourself, then just for the sheer entertainment value.

However, before you give up reading, there is one important thing you must remember : a picture is often not worth a thousand words, so be careful what you look at.