making is connecting david gauntlet

by making’ we simply mean people making things. This can be with new technologies, or ancient ones, and can be on the internet, or offline. So it refers to James knitting a scarf, Marvin taking photographs, Michelle making a YouTube video, Natasha coding a videogame, or hundreds of other examples like that.
And ‘connecting’ means social connections – people starting conversations, sharing reviews, providing information, or making friends. But also it refers, for me, to a connectedness with the world which we live in. So I say ‘making is connecting’ because you put together ideas and materials to make something new; because creativity often includes a social dimension, connecting you with other people; and because we think that through making things, you feel more of a participant in the world, and you feel more a part of it, more embedded – because you are contributing, not just consuming, so you’re more actively engaged with the world, and so, more connected.
I think this is almost always the case, regardless of what technology is being used, and was the case for centuries before we had a global wired network. But in an era of networked computing, which you mentioned, I think that these benefits are amplified, and many new opportunities and connections are enabled. Creativity didn’t begin with the internet – far from it. But in an obvious and well-known way, the internet enables people to connect with others who share their interests, regardless of where they live in the world – whereas previously, geography, and the practical difficulties of finding people, made it far more difficult to have conversations with others who shared niche interests.
Having easy access to people who share their passions means that individuals can be inspired by each other’s work and ideas – which can lead to a positive spiral of people doing better and better things and inspiring more and more activity by others. This could happen before the internet, in clubs and societies, but it would tend to be slower, and the inspiring inputs would most likely be fewer, and less diverse.