So Time picked you and me... the users, as its Person of the Year, holding out YouTube as its shining example of a community driven media revolution.
I have two reactions to this.
First, I don't need old media telling me I'm special. Like Jarvis wrote, it has always been us. Only now, it seems to be fashionable and profitable to say so. Old media giving us a pat on the back reminds me of that line in Pink Floyd's Animals:
"You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to
So that when they turn their backs on you
You'll get the chance to put the knife in."
So, to Time, I give a big fat thanks but no thanks... the same reaction I have to blogging "A-lists". We're just people, living out our lives and talking. That's not special, that's just real. Unfortunately, it took the web a long time to get this close to reflecting real life.
That being said, my bigger issue is that it really doesn't reflect real life for most people. Most people aren't blogging or posting on YouTube.
And, in the year where it became obvious that we weren't going to "win" in Iraq, I have to admit, that I feel a little sickened that we're being so self-congratulatory about taking over the web. We're nearling 3,000 US military deaths in Iraq, now more than the number of civilians killed in 9/11... and we're talking about... YouTube? Are you serious? PS... Newt Gingrich pointed out something interesting today... 60% of young Iraqi males are out of work. He suggested fixing things over there by instituting an FDR-sized civil works program. Instead of paying soldiers to shoot people who have nothing better to do than to shoot at us, how about paying citizens to fix their own country and go to work.
Look, I'm impressed and awed by user generated media as much as the next guy. I mean, hey, I work for an avatar company.
But, let's reserve this award for the year that bloggers and YouTubers end the War in Iraq, Save Darfur, rebuild New Orleans, address global warming (I'm going to bike into the city today, December 17th and it's going to be 62 degrees in NYC), push voter turnout over 80%, fix our education system, ban Paris Hilton from all media, start getting states to fall like dominos on gay marriage, or all of the above. Right now, I think we're still doing a little too much talking to ourselves to deserve the proverbial reach around. We still have a lot of work to do.