Bernaisesource

Television test patterns? -- more on that in a moment....

User generated content is once again prominently in the news.  This time, it’s Time Magazine’s Person of the Year – You.  

I am not sure what to make of Time Magazine’s selection.  As usual, their pick has generated much buzz, but it raises some questions for me.  

Does Time Magazine now validate the web 2.0 phenomenon for the rest of us?  Or does this pick by a media property begun in a bygone era demonstrate that user generated content has jumped the proverbial shark.  Is it time for those in the know – the technorati --to find the next big thing to hype? 

My conclusion: Of course not. I don’t think a piece of reflective foil on the cover of  a national weekly indicates we have exhausted web 2.0.  There is still too much hype to be had.   But still, I can’t help but think that its coolness factor diminishes every time mainstream media sings its praises.  

And loudly it sings.  Everywhere you look, there is another story about web 2.0’s expanding influence -- even as mainstream media's influence is challenged.

Putting aside Time Magazine, a recent New York Times front page featured a story on companies like Charmin (a apt metaphor perhaps) staging events in Time Square with the full hope that passersby will snap pictures on their cell phones or shoot video on digital cameras and post it on their MySpace pages and YouTube.  It’s clever; it works, but are we supposed to be impressed by how old media gets it?

At what point does the process stop reflecting on itself?  When does the Internet cease being THE Internet and start being the air we breathe, the electricity that powers our appliances or the water that runs from our faucets?  In other words, just part of the background.

In another time – the early dawn of television’s golden age – when the TV set was new and possessed by few, I have heard that people would marvel at test patterns when pre-24/7 stations with limited content would sign off for the night. 

Will future generations mock our fascination with user generated content as we today smile amusedly at those quaint pioneers who braved late nights in front of television screens fascinated by static test patterns and a persistent audio tone?

Let me get back to you.

Technorati Tags: Social Media; Time Magazine; Person of the year; Web 2.0;