TIME Person of the Year
So after some thought and reading some other sites’ takes on this whole TIME Person of the Year thing, I figure I ought to chime in, as a blogger and someone who enjoys using Web 2.0 sites.
First off, TIME magazine named “you” their person of the year - meaning, all the people who rate stuff, create stuff, and berate stuff online, sending shivers through the spines of professional “old media” companies and cheers through the startups of Web 2.0.
Personally, I’m a big supporter of these new developments. While I’m not exactly a rebel, I’ve definitely tired of much of what mainstream, corporate media has to offer. For every cool show like Battlestar Galactica, there are many terminally crappy programs I wouldn’t touch with a ten foot antenna. Likewise, with mainstream movies and music there is just so much garbage written by committee that I find it hard to even bother.
But I still crave entertainment like anyone else, and user created content points out a third road. It manifests itself in all sorts of ways, from the Steven Colbert green-screen challenge to blog rants, or a Web 2.0 site where people can rate links, videos, and news articles. All of these are definitely manifestations of our collective desire to have more say in the quality and creation of the media we consume, and subtly give the finger to the mainstream corporations that continue to sell us their unimaginative, boring, watered-down stuff laden with advertising. Over the past year, I’ve seen a lot of funny and interesting stuff created by average folks. While none of it approaches the polish of a professionally production, it doesn’t matter - what’s appealing is the honesty and excitement of a voice not normally heard.
In some way, I see the rise of user-created content as a continuation of the reality television trend. Many of us are still fascinated with the idea that we can be stars in a television show. Now, the tools of content creation are falling into these same people’s hands, so in a sense we can now control the production. Someday, it will be the distribution.
But this media revolution could easily fail. One warning sign I see (and this TIME magazine article may be the first) is that corporations are very good at co-opting ideas for their own nefarious, money-making purposes. The message may be “User-created content! We help you be you!” but the more cynical situation I could easily see happening is: “we” (the corporation) want “you” to create content and hand it over to us (along with all publishing rights), which will be used to sell more advertising: and you won’t be compensated for it. For corporations, this could be an even better deal than outsourcing. Forget rock bottom wages, get the masses to create stuff for free - and profit!
“We” have to be careful of this. If we users really have the power in this new world, and if user-created content and Web 2.0 are really supposed to be a social media revolution - we can’t give up control. Let’s use our collective potential to decide which old media companies aren’t getting the idea and help them get with the program… or go out of business. And as for the companies that do want user participation in the formerly one-way conversation, let’s support them.
So support the blogger. Support the startup. Support the people making cool stuff that finally get to live their dream. Support the web companies that don’t sell out. Don’t be fooled by the big corporation that bought a startup and now wants to use “you” as a platform for viral advertising, that wants to co-opt this user revolution.
Lastly, is this a new tech boom? Maybe, so let’s ride it out as far as it takes us. And when Web 3.0 hits, hopefully it will hand the users the last aspect of corporate holding: distribution. Then we won’t need the big corporations anymore - let alone TIME magazine - to tell us what’s happening.
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