It’s not, of course, that there’s anything wrong with making (although it’s not all that clear that the world needs more stuff). The problem is the idea that the alternative to making is usually not doing nothing—it’s almost always doing things for and with other people, from the barista to the Facebook community moderator to the social worker to the surgeon.
Chachra, Debbie. “Why I am Not a Maker,” in The Atlantic (January 23rd, 2015).
When reading “Why I am Not a Maker,” this quotation stood out to me because it implied that making things is almost selfish. I disagree with this because so many creations produced by makers have helped people on such a large scale. What I understood from this quote is that Chachra believes that making is the alternative to devoting your life towards doing things for other people, when in my experience, many people create things in order to better their communities.
Most of the people I surround myself with live their lives with the goal of helping other people. My mom is a therapist, my dad is a teacher, and both of them do what they do because they love people and want to give back to the communities they’ve been a part of. It’s such a different lifestyle than the maker culture that Chachra is referring to in this quote.
I believe that new technologies and inventions have just as much of a potential to help people as alternative job. However, I think the biggest difference for me that Chachra I think was alluding to was the lack of interpersonal connection with the people you help when you make things, as opposed to interacting with people directly in other types of jobs. This quote, and the whole article in general, reminded me that I am someone who needs to interact with people hand-ons. I think that’s why in the past, I have struggled with technology because I tend to view it as a barrier instead of a link.
This trimester, I’m really curious to learn about the ways technology builds communities and can be used to connect people. After working with SketchUp, I am also really excited to learn techniques or programs that will help me replicate physical places or objects.
