December 17, 2006
'You' named Time's person of 2006
"You" have been named as TIME magazine's Person of the Year for the growth and influence of user-generated content on the internet. The BBC reports.
"The US magazine praised the public for "seizing the reins of the global media" and filling the web's virtual world.
The magazine said naming a collectivity rather than an individual reflected the way the internet was shifting the balance of power within the media through blogs, videos and social networks.
Time cited websites such as YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and Wikipepdia, which allow users to interact with the web by uploading and publishing their own comments, videos, pictures and links. "
Excerpts from TIME.:
If you look at 2006 through a different lens and you'll see 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.
Who are these people? Seriously, who actually sits down after a long day at work and says, I'm not going to watch Lost tonight. I'm going to turn on my computer and make a movie starring my pet iguana? I'm going to mash up 50 Cent's vocals with Queen's instrumentals? I'm going to blog about my state of mind or the state of the nation or the steak-frites at the new bistro down the street? Who has that time and that energy and that passion?
The answer is, you do. And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is you.
Read also: - Enough about you (TIME magazine)
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