Just finished reading a great post from Neil Robertson about the changing tide of editorialization of the web and an idea he has to solve it. It was great because I’m so incredibly over the Web2.0 movement. Done. Finished. Sayonara bitches. But his post got me thinking about all we’ve gotten from the Web2.0 revolution.
First, an acknowledgment that Web2.0 is a stepping stone. A necessary evil. The future is brighter and the Internet will change our lives for the better (more on that in a future post). In the meantime, we’re suffering the consequences.
Web2.0’s wonderful gifts:
The Loss of Intelligent Content to Consume
The most destructive piece of Web2.0 is user generated content (UGC). UGC is driving us ever more quickly down the road of becoming dumber and lazier.
From the publisher side, Web2.0 is laziness in action. It removes the writer and editor (read: overhead and content quantity constraints) from the process and ensures that rather than producing one good story or article a day, tens of thousands can be produced. This was a big deal at Yahoo! before I left…and still is. But editing, filtering and surfacing the good stuff was rarely considered.
Laziness never wins in the end (see: the hare).
With the exception of the top half of 1% of blogs, UGC makes us dumber. We’re fascinated by lip-syncing fat kids in front of webcams or by Justine Average’s lifestreaming. We’ve found the Lowest Common Denominator.
This has a Reagan-esque trickle-down effect. More of our media consumption is happening online and the other outlets are struggling to keep pace. What happens? The 5:00 news is essentially Entertainment Tonight read by someone with a deeper voice. Reality shows. Singing/dancing shows. Game shows where the only skill is knowing how to pronounce the number on the front of the suitcase. Really?
Filters are gone. Sex, babies, dogs and sex sell. Why try anything else?
Am I an old crumudgeon already? Am I an elitist?
I long for the days of G.I. Joe telling me a story with a moral. After all, “…knowing is half the battle.”
Extremist Discourse
Being able to share your opinions (yes, like I am) without regard to your audience creates more radical views. Face to face communication is gone. No longer do have have to actually listen to other viewpoints. After all, UGC is all about me spewing my thoughts on a page like verbal diarrhea. It’s me ’speaking,’ rather than listening.
And if I don’t have to listen or suffer the consequences of having a viewpoint that doesn’t fall within our societal norms then what’s to stop me from believing that I’m off course?
In order to get noticed through the noise you have to be different. Or extreme. You have to have an opinion that gets people fired up.
If not, what’s the point of contributing?
For example, the video of the guy on a cubicle rampage has been passed along to me several times today. If he was just angrily packing his papers into his briefcase and muttering under his breath would it be a ‘hit?’
Loss of Connectedness
We think we’re more connected these days. I have 279 connections on LinkedIn and nearly as many friends on Facebook. Look how popular I am!
But reading a newsfeed, seeing status updates and reading tweets doesn’t make me any closer to my friends. Yes, I know what they’re up to but this is a poor substitute for actually living in real life.
I’m hopelessly addicted to the Internet so this isn’t a rant about the time we spend online. But the Internet gives me the feeling of connectedness without the connectedness itself. A far worse crime in my book.
We’re missing out on the shared experiences that form strong bonds. Going to the movies isn’t the same as sharing YouTube videos because there is a lot more conversation and context around our theatrical adventure.
A whole generation is growing up thinking that a 140 character message that leads with “[your name] is…” is the same as actually talking to their friend.
Looking Ahead
So what’s it all mean? Like the 2004 Presidential election there isn’t much we can do about it now. But we can look ahead and make sure we don’t repeat the mistakes we’re living through today. More on that later…
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