The Young Folks and Their Web Journey

October 10, 2008

An Ignoble But Much Needed End To Web 2.0, Marked By A Party In Cyprus. That Mike Arrington knows how to write a post title (in fact knows how to write, more so than most others on the web or in print).

You can see the party in question at Vimeo: I won’t embed it, I’ll just tell you that Mike does, and describe it as a bunch of young “world Internet citizens” lip-syncing to Journey’s so-awful-it’s awesome anthem “Don’t Stop Believing.” Mike mockingly describes Web 2.0 as a boom that just ended with the drying up of easy capital.

As I watched the video (so that you don’t have to) and read Mike’s post, a different song started playing in my head.

and we don’t care about the young folks
talkin’ bout the young style
and we don’t care about the old folks
talkin’ ’bout the old style too
and we don’t care about our own folks
talkin’ ’bout our own stuff
all we care about is talking
talking only me and you

I’m not sick of Web 2.0. It allows “talking only me and you” microconversations, which may stay micro, or may lead into finding “our own folks,” be they young, old, or both. I’m thinking of ventures such as Birdpost, recently featured at Mike’s TechCrunch 50 event.

With reference to the tough financial times, I quote Peter, Bjorn and John: “we can stick around and see this night through.” And I even quote Journey: “Don’t Stop Believing.” You see, it’s possible to remain enthusiastic about the web’s possibilities, if your morning coffee is strong enough (as mine obviously was).
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