I think one thing we have in common is a very deep need to express ourselves. I think this is a very old human desire. It's nothing new. But the thing about self-expression is that there's traditionally been this imbalance between the desire that we have to express ourselves and the number of sympathetic friends who are willing to stand around and listen. This, also, is nothing new. Since the dawn of human history, we've tried to rectify this imbalance by making art, writing poems, singing songs, scripting editorials and sending them in to a newspaper, gossiping with friends. This is nothing new.

-- Jonathan Harris, in this TED talk