Umair Haque / Bubblegeneration

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Blogonomics 2007, Or How The Blogosphere Lost It's Mojo

You know, I feel like the quality of discussion in the blogosphere has kind of fallen off a cliff over the last year or so.

For example. If all this isn't enough, what would it take for you to think Facebook is evil?

Ugh. Look. People don't have to sign a petition. The Beacon net isn't liquid enough yet to really bug people. When it is, they won't sign - they'll just stop interacting. The Friendster effect.

But there's a bigger point, so let's stop beating around the bush. Most of the blogs that have gone pro have lost their mojo. They're boring now - not fun to read, losing their appetite for risk, they almost never take a position on anything anymore, in lieu of the same old middle-of-the-road presentation you can get, well, in any lame old newspaper.

Remember how hardcore - and seriously funny - Om used to be about every little silly move telcos made? Well, he doesn't do it anymore. Remember how interesting it used to be to go to ReadWriteWeb and check out what Richard had to say? Not anymore. Remember how TechCrunch used to actually introduce interesting startups - and, shock horror, even criticize some of them - intead of just recycling PR, essentially selling more and more space to the highest bidder?

In fact, the only guy bucking this trend is Rafat - and I think it's a major driver of his success.

Why? Because everyone else is just replicating mass media. It's the same old game, all over again - middle of the road position drives attention sells ads. But today's economics are very different - and so are today's consumers.

-- umair // 11:10 AM // 3 comments

Comments:

I have a 16 year old son who is a heavy Facebook user. It is part of the fabric of his life, his way of communicating and gathering information about his group of actual friends in the real world. He does have an extended network of "friends" as well. I promise you he does not at the moment fully understand the insidiousness of the Facebook Beacon ad plan...when he does he will no longer use Facebook!! And he will be a catalyst to move his real friends off of Facebook. I agree, and I am sure he will agree when he understands it, that Facebook's plan is not just EVIL but ILLEGAL!!

The arrogance and stupidity of Facebook on this is truly amazing.

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weg3 // 2:28 PM

yeah but the value in facebook isnt the software its the network - EVERYONE is on it. It will be v. hard for any new network to gain that kind of critical mass so there's tremendous lock-in surely?

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James // 2:47 PM

related:

"It leads to a sort of nervousness. The moment a media system becomes infected by nervousness it starts to decline." (Adam Curtis)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/20/adam_curtis_interview/print.html

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Anonymous // 12:40 AM