Web 2.0, who cares?

I noticed this week that Andrea Weckerle has picked up blogging again (welcome 'back', Andrea). In her most recent post, she finds it really curious that some people would "ask where I'd gone. They didn't put my name into a search engine, which would've shown the recent hangouts. Instead, they must've just assumed that if I wasn't here l wasn't anywhere. What does that say about social networking sites and online communities? Well, it drives home the obvious point that while there is some overlap between friends/contacts across groups (and in the PR & social media circles probably more so than average), all-in-all it's less than one would expect."

I'd say she's got a point. Her observation also made me think about this quote I read some time ago on Threadwatch.org (via Jan van den Bergh):

  [photo]

"The title (viz. above, nocopy) isn't mine, it was from a 16 year-old kid that belongs to the wireless generation. His entire quote was,

“Web 2.0, dude, who cares, where’s Phone 2.0? The web is for old people and losers”.

What I've noticed is that teens are more connected than ever before, just not to the web, and usually not via PC. They don't care about 'social media' and Myspace was a fad. The kids I spoke to used it for two weeks or so, got bored and moved. Their 'social network' is real, and when they aren't together in 'real life' they stay connected with their cell phones. They aren't using Digg, Netscape, Facebook or "Web 2.0". Even the few that have blogs might post once or twice a month and even the self-admitted 'geeks' sad that the Web is like a big commercial.

A few of them shop on the Web, but it's word of mouth advertising that influence their purchases, not ads on Myspace or blogs, unless one of their friends happen to blog about something. All of them said they use cell phones and text messaging much more than they surf the Web or use messengers. I know they aren't the influencers now, but they will be. So where is all this social media stuff headed?"

You know what? Judging from how my students react to this web 2.0 'thing', this post on Threadwatch might be closer to the truth than most of us suspect... Or do you disagree?

Comments

[Simon Collister]

To the point, but very pertinent stuff, Serge. I'm mulling over where next for 'web 2.0', social media etc and had decided that mobiles would play an increasingly bigger part of it after seeing the guy from Blynkx(or whatever) speak last year but I wasn't sure how it would play out. Still not quite sure but I'm getting there.

[Serge Cornelus]

I'm already curious to see what you come up with, Simon. But I think that mobility WILL be the next big deciding factor when it comes to social media, "web" 2.0 and communiciations 2.0 basically... We already have the "anything" element, but the "anywhere" and "anytime" are only truly possible when they can be taken literally...

[Sidney]

Not sure. My kid is almost 14. I see him chatting a lot (too much) on the net. Of course he is using his mobile all the time too... ;-(

[Robin Wauters]

I agree 100%