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Alongside TV we had cameras, and families across the country filming birthdays and other special occasions.

Alongside newspapers we had 'zine culture and mail-order pamphlets.

There has always been the option to contribute - the Apple iPhone is quite possibly the first exception.

You could film and put it on your tv, but you couldn’t create and distribute to the medium at large

Not with the same reach, but some people kinda could! Specifics depended on where you were in the world, but it existed and to some extent still does. In spite of a very rough decade and a half since 2010 culling many of them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-access_television https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_television_in_Canada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swindon_Viewpoint https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_television_in_Austra...

Weirdo eccentrics sure found a way to distribute their shot on home video b-movies.

And you can still use the camera app to post your pictures to social media. It's hardly the same level of creative participation that the PC invites.

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