Web 2.0

Ashley Sumii
Professor Huey
English 155
November 22, 2009
No More Yourspace
In Steven Johnson’s article “It’s All About Us,” he writes about how Web 2.0 is very beneficial and he celebrates it; however, a professional journalist named Brian Williams explains in his article “Enough About You,” that Web 2.0 is not very valuable for society. In Johnson’s article, he says, “Web 2.0 is made up of ordinary people: hobbyists, diarists, armchair pundits, people adding their voice to the Web’s great evolving conversation for the sheer love it.” Steven Johnson likes the fact that regular people write their opinions and their views on society today on the internet. Brian Williams writes, “What is more, Williams worries, with the ability to tailor our media consumption today to only those sources that reflect our already held view, we may be missing out on alternative perspectives ‘that citizens in an informed democracy need to know.” Brian Williams feels that people will not be informed of the important things going on in the world, because they will only read about the things they care about or are interested in. Although Web 2.0 does help people in the community share their views and opinions about various topics, it does not benefit our society because it just encourages us to focus more on only things we want to see, instead of opening our eyes to the more important news events that are occurring.
Brian Williams makes a good argument in the sense that Web 2.0 does not benefit our society and that people are obsessed with networking sites, like Facebook or Myspace. Instead of focusing on the important news that is going on in our nation, people today are more focused on their own personal information on the internet and Web 2.0 is promoting a “me-centered” generation. According to Brian Williams, “It’s all about you. Me. And all the various forms of the First Person Singular. Americans have decided that the most important person in their lives is…them, and our culture is now built upon that idea. It’s the User-Generated Generation” (“Enough about You”). Facebook for example is a huge website that allows users to focus on themselves and what is going on in their own personal lives. Because people are so obsessed with this website, they overlook the ongoing news happening in the world today.
A huge news story that is definitely being overlooked is the war going on in Darfur. Thousands of people have already died and there are many children being abducted and are being brainwashed into becoming killing machines.