Narcissism: Apex of Web 2.0?

March 19th, 2007

Are we at a high point of Web 2.0 before a leveling off — or worse? While many technology innovations of the past centered around increasing business productivity, a lot of Web 2.0 seems dedicated toward social activities and entertainment — and particularly ego-stroking ones at that:

• Startups making their own reality television shows: Justin.TV and also RockStartup. Should entrepreneurs = movie stars?
• Twitter at its worst is a celebrity-gawking-style celebration of the mundane. Is it the ultimate in pointlessness?
• It seems a feature film documentary of Web 2.0 is right around the corner, and would be an echo of Startup.com, the 2001 film made about a failing Web 1.0 company, GovWorks.com (it’s an awesome flick if you haven’t seen it). Wait a sec, I’m curious what the GovWorks guys are up to now. How about a sequel?
• Social networking at its core is about making everyone feel part of a network. You collect friends like trading cards and put them on display for the world to see how connected you are.

I’m not the only person to wonder why this phase of technology innovation seems devoted more to entertaining ourselves in a strangely more “me” centric way: Nick Carr did so nearly a year ago. Well, this recent Newsweek article mentions a study implying that upcoming generations are even more narcissistic than ever before:

“The standardized inventory, known as the NPI, asks for responses to such statements as ‘If I ruled the world, it would be a better place,’ ‘I think I am a special person” and ‘I can live my life any way I want to.’

“The study asserts that narcissists ‘are more likely to have romantic relationships that are short-lived, at risk for infidelity, lack emotional warmth, and to exhibit game-playing, dishonesty, and over-controlling and violent behaviors.’ ”

For some reason, the nutty, judgemental masses at digg, the gamers trying to cheat their way ahead, and the success of MySpace make a bit more sense. Maybe all this stuff really is filling an unmet need.

Personally, I’d like to see more celebration of companies like the frugal ones in this SFGate article. Narcissm can lead people to a sense of entitlement, and is that the right attitude you want to see in charge of millions of VC dollars?

But back to the fun. Here are some nutty Web 2.0 business ideas I just came up with to take this trend of narcissism to the next level of widget-gazing:

• QuestionMark.com: Every day, you get an email asking you a random question such as: What did you eat last night for dinner? Who is your favorite actor? Answers are published in blog form.
• Twitterazzi.com: Hire a virtual posse that posts comments on your blog, sends you IM, and Twitter you with platitudes and praise, the frequency according to a slider bar that ranges from monthly, weekly, daily, hourly, or once per minute.
• Social Networking Manager: Just as aspiring actors have a PR manager, let them handle social networking as well. We all need someone to personally manage all 374 profiles on the leading social sites. Just tell your manager “I want my people to know I’ve started fatblogging” and the rest is taken care of.
• Web 2.0 Version of F***ed Company: If we’re headed for a crash, somebody better get working on this pronto. Hey wait, Robert Scoble mentions as much in this recent post, even suggesting that TechCrunch may be angling in this direction. Scary, but smart.
• YouFeed: This feed-based service does “ego-surfing,” searching for your name everywhere, and supplies the results in an RSS feed that you can stick in your blog sidebar.
• BlogOMatic: Web service that analyzes all your blog posts to determine your writing style, from which it can generate new, original content while you’re on vacation.

Anyhow, I’m just having some fun. I’m still hoping Web 2.0 has some more legs to it, because I’ve only gotten one free coffee mug so far. And life is all about me, and the swag I’m entitled to, goshdarnit!