Person of the Year

Thanks to Hannah at Milliner's Dream for pointing out the fact that I'm Time magazine's person of the year. So is everyone reading this blog; we're all citizens of "the information age." According to Time,

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.

Part of me loves the growth of user-generated content. I believe that individuals have important stories to tell, and in a democracy we need to listen to many voices. As someone who can't always find a market for my work, I appreciate how the internet brings down barriers to publication.

Part of me distrusts the new revolution, though, afraid it will lead to rampant narcissism and the proliferation of poor judgment. I'm afraid that at least some people will increasingly choose virtual lives over real ones, which will have a negative impact on families and communities. As someone who gets paid for writing words, I wonder how the explosion of "content" will affect writing as a profession.

Clearly, though, we're not going back to the days when I might write these thoughts only in a journal or a letter to a friend. I understand now how older people can be suspicious of technology. Sometimes the pace of change feels dizzying, and, despite being only 30 years old, I feel like a crotchety geezer going on about how "back in my day, we didn't have newfangled inventions like the MySpace."