Facebook’s activity from circa 2006 to 2016 is a perfect example of what Web 2.0 became, in that they wanted to get as many people on their network as possible and then expand Internet access globally solely for driving up those user numbers. As the shock from the 2001 dot-com-boom wore off, companies realized the massive revenue potential in the Internet. User generated content could easily be spread and viewed by everyone on a certain network, even crossing over into others. YouTube and social media popped up during this time, as did plenty of blog networks such as SB Nation. Web 2.0’s meta was all about eliminating that filter and making the Internet easy to use for everyone. As if preserved in amber, has the period aesthetic of a 1999 forum. I was on a lot of video game forums as a youngster, but many older folks took to college football message boards to discuss recruiting rumors and other behind-the-scenes details that casual fans wouldn’t go that far to seek out. Similarly, PHP forums popped up for any topic people wanted to discuss. IRC chat was popular, but only in a niche sense in that you had to actively seek out specific chatrooms. It required a certain amount of savvy to navigate, especially with search engines in their infancy, but this was a bit of a filter the Internet was a place separate from the real world, and most people weren’t on it very often. This was when you used to download a video over your 56K dial-up that you found on someone’s personal page with spinning 3D GIFs. Web 1.0 was the genesis of the Internet with static web pages and content tied directly to a server. Web 2.0, in case you’re unfamiliar, describes the meta of the internet from roughly 2004 until some time before today and was all about connecting people personally, user-generated content, easy user interfaces and cross-platform compatibility. Welcome to the death of the Information Age. My thesis is as follows: the “Information Age,” which dramatically expanded the amount of information available to an ordinary person, the ease of its access and the speed at which it can be delivered, is over. But that’s what the Off Topic Empire tag is for, and what better place for this diatribe than a relic of the bygone “free and open Internet” era? This is a rant that’s probably better suited for some other blog, perhaps some other side of the crumbling edifice that is Web 2.0.
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