Abstract:
The web has come alive with new social-media networks and vast resources to connect us. Active readers are engaging in multi-media experiences, communicating with large networks of people, and connecting to the global world daily on the web. Web 2.0 is remarkable but not without its flaws.
Treatment:
“If it doesn’t include you, it may not be worth sitting still for” (Shirky, 2008). These words were said by Clay Shirky in his keynote speech on web 2.0. He posed the question, will people spend their time and cognitive surplus on television, radio, and static entertainment or will they interact in the lively, viral, and massive web full of millions of sites.
The goal of web 2.0 is to create interconnectivities, interactions, and communications that bring people together (Shirky, 2008). Social-networking sites are the new coffee shop, where people meet, greet, and connect with new and old friends. Sites like Facebook and MySpace are leaders in the industry creating virtual chat rooms for millions. However, these social networking sites might take the place of creating real world, face-to-face relationships. Will these cyber relationships fulfill people? I asked my college students if they felt more connected to people due to Facebook, or if in fact they felt more isolated. Most felt more connected but some felt isolated sitting behind their computers instead of enjoying time with their best friends in person.
Skype, blogs, wikis, listservs and emails allow people to communicate in new ways. This quick flow of information and communication has many benefits and downfalls. On the positive, the new consumption notion involving production and sharing that Shirky noted allows people to be players in the media world instead of just consumers (Shirky, 2008). By being active communicators, no longer is the flow of information from news sources to consumers a one-way street. Now news is created by consumers: edited, published, and shared. Additionally people are taking a much larger role in public discourse, interactive media, and citizen journalism. On the flip side, communicating by email is a stunted communication model, where the flow goes only one way at a time. Also privacy is an issue as any message or wiki list can be shared publically.
In addition to those social sites, informational sites are frequented. There’s a need to organize the vast resources in an efficient manner. Google Reader can help with that. Google Reader constantly checks your favorite news sites and blogs for new content daily or monthly to show you all of your favorite sites in one convenient place. “It's like a personalized inbox for the entire web” (Google, 2010).
Various businesses will utilize most aspects of web 2.0 to their advantages. In the field of marketing and advertising, this new social-media world will have a large affect on how products are pushed and sold. Sophisticated ads will use algorithms to track mathematically how people buy. Ads will stalk their consumers who showed interest in products by putting cookies on hard drives; thereby, popping up ads for that product on each site the consumers visit. Advertising will become so advanced, clever, and viral, all with the goal of capturing consumer attention on the net. Since the web has become much noisier, advertisers will have to become that much better.
Additionally social media and the Internet will affect education. I must prepare my students to think critically about information and how to find what they are looking for within seconds on the web. I agree with Will Richardson that new curriculum must make room for web 2.0 (YouTube, 2008). The connectivity, engagement, and collectivism that can come about from use of the web will make students better, if used properly. Fundamentals still need to be taught but they can be taught in a more high-tech way.
Conclusion:
Web 2.0 is full of amazing things and ways for us to connect to others, learn, do business, and communicate. This powerful medium has so many benefits, but it also has many downfalls. Social scientists will likely study the affects the Internet, social media sites, and viral communications has on people, for years to come. The positives are well-known, but the negatives need some attention.
References:
Google. (2010). Google reader. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/intl/en/googlereader/tour.html
Picapp. (2010). Internet Advertising. Retrieved from http://www.picapp.com/search.aspx?term=internet%20advertising&pageNum=0&cats=creative
Shirky, C. (Speaker). (2008). Web 2.0 Expo Keynote. Google videos. NewsBlaze.com. Retrieved http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2708219489770693816#
YouTube . (2009). Social media revolution . Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8
YouTube. (2008). Read/Write Web with Will Richardson. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFbDEBNS7AE
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