If I wanted to be popular, this blog would be about sexy ladies, how awesome Obama is and pictures of kittens that can’t spell.
Zach makes an important point about the evolution of personal publishing on the web:
It’s not the infographics on the page that interest me, rather it’s the trend of emphasizing a user’s popularity on the network. Lamentably, I think this metric will come to define the experience for the next generation of social networks. I fear that the internet’s utility for many people will equate to constant awareness of one’s value, and the play of meaningless games to increase the sum.
Creativity and timelessness will be the first casualties of a web that continues in this direction, a web whose most notable creations will have the aesthetic of cheap memes and the lasting value of a 4chan board.
Quoted for truth, but I think that’s sadly fairly universal — not just limited to social networks. Honestly, how often do “popular” and “smart” or “innovative” overlap?
