Time Congratulates "You"

Yesterday, Time Magazine named "You" as Person of the Year for 2006.
At first glance, this seems like a cop-out, a classic pandering to the very demographic that keeps that journalistic conglomerate in business. Obviously, "You" could mean anybody and everybody that has bought into the magazine, in one form or the other.

However, within the context of Facebook, YouTube, Digg, Myspace, and other user-generated sites, "You" comes to represent---well, You,--- and other readers of this blog and participators of activities on the Internet.

To explain further what Time means, I provide a quote directly from their writing staff:

But look at 2006 through a different lens and you'll see another story, one that isn't about conflict or great men. It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.

The tool that makes this possible is the World Wide Web. Not the Web that Tim Berners-Lee hacked together (15 years ago, according to Wikipedia) as a way for scientists to share research. It's not even the overhyped dotcom Web of the late 1990s. The new Web is a very different thing. It's a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter. Silicon Valley consultants call it Web 2.0, as if it were a new version of some old software. But it's really a revolution.

With that said, congratulations to all of "You" for being a part of the revolution---for taking part in a medium that has the power to wrestle influence away from "Conflict" and "Great Men" and give it to those of us just large enough to matter. Thank-"You" for challenging the mainstream media and providing us with information that the three major networks were afraid to cover.

And as far as music is concerned, thank-you to all of "You" music bloggers and readers who affirmed that it wasn't the Big Five Record Companies who determined which bands deserved exposure or not. Thank-"You" for showing that radio exposure is so eighties---that "You" are only interested in listening to what "You" wanna listen to.

Give yourselves all a pat on the back: According to Time, "You" all deserve it.