USA Today Goes "Reefer Madness" on the Real-Time Web
Jon Swartz wrote a long article in USA Today this morning about the phenomenon of the real-time web. The article blames "the real-time web" for declining test scores in school, anti-social addictions, short attention spans and texting-while-driving. Swartz smooshes YouTube, social networks, online banking, location-aware search and social media marketing all under the same umbrella of doom.
We'd like to highlight Swartz's work as our Real-Time Web Article of the Day because it's a great example of the same old Fear of the Internet getting a new name. As a result, USA Today readers lose an opportunity to understand an important new wave of change and opportunity.
The real-time web is of course far more coherent and less frightening than Swartz's article. Isn't the sun setting on the era when grown adults are afraid of Facebook and cell phones?
We're highlighting articles written off-site each day about the real-time web that we think are helpful in understanding this emerging trend, all leading up to what we believe is going to be a fabulous face-to-face event on the topic: the ReadWrite Real-Time Web Summit on October 15h in Mountain View, California. Miniscule attention spans and anti-social additions are not required - in fact we expect a great day of brainstorming, collaboration and networking. Early bird registration ends tonight. But enough about us, let's talk about USA Today's fear of the real-time web.
The article's premise:
The latest iteration of the Internet -- deemed the "real-time Web" by some analysts, is exemplified by the obsessive use of PCs or cellphones for quick interactions and dips into the online information stream. This hyper-connectedness is fueled by the rise in social media and distinguished by quick, short communication and, increasingly, an absence of privacy.
The Real-Time Web's Potential
Three future, hyper-geeky, scenarios.
From a conversation with Google's Brett Slatkin, co-creator of the Pubsubhubbub protocol
- Immediate public release of financial data for SEC compliance
- 3D spatial imaging using sensor networks with open, standardized data transfer
- Social networking as a decentralized communications protocol instead of on centralized corporate properties
The Real-Time Web is a paradigm based on pushing information to users as soon as it's available - instead of requiring that they or their software check a source periodically for updates. It's being implemented in social networking, search, news and elsewhere - making those experiences more like Instant Messaging and facilitating unpredictable innovations. Early benefits include increased user engagement ("flow") and decreased server loads, but these are early days.
I think our definition is clearer and more useful; Swartz clearly doesn't like the real-time web and arguably doesn't understand what it is.
Swartz's article is peppered with quotes from people in the industry, but my favorite was this one:
"It all can be distracting at times," says Kevin Weatherman, 27, who is in business development for an Internet advertising start-up in Palo Alto, Calif. He uses at least six instant-messaging services -- often at once.
Weatherman works for a real-time ad network called PubMatic; the company must have been pleased when USA Today called to talk about the real-time web. They must have been displeased when they saw that Weatherman made the mistake of mentioning the devil's spawn that is multi-network chat clients Adium or Trillian and that's what the reporter grabbed hold of.
Swartz concludes his article with a collection of rapid-fire links to various factoids about the negative consequences for society wrought by Facebook and text messaging. To be fair, not all of Swartz's criticisms seem entirely off-base or irrelevant, but focusing only on how distracting these new flows of information are is taking the easy way out.
In truth, or perhaps in addition to some of the semi-related fears Swartz brings up, the real-time web is making possible richer, more efficient communication between people and between computers. It's an exciting foundation for innovation in almost every field you can think of.
Remember though kids, when those Twitter search results get pushed to you automatically, you might think that the real-time web is fun and useful - but it's actually the beginning of the end of the rest of your life.
For a more accurate and useful discussion of this important trend, stay right here with ReadWriteWeb and join the conversation about how we can effectively utilize these new technologies.
Share
Facebook
Comments
Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all ReadWriteWeb posts
Good article. but I am desperately hoping someone will now write a Reefer Madness style musical documentary on this, or something else super geeky/technologically inclined. :)
Not only is it as Marshall says: "same old Fear of the Internet getting a new name" It's also the same old media-hype renaming what the web already has been for more than a decade. I mean what's real time web really?
Answer: Go to your favorite State Department of transportation website and click on a web-cam of freeway traffic and wow, is the real time web amazing or what?
Well, actually the "real time web" is even better than that. Say if you really like Blue trucks... You'd tell the website: "I wanna see blue trucks!" And then every time a webcam up the road sees a blue truck it sends you a message that a blue truck is on it's way to the webcam down the road and it's predicted to be driving by at a specific time so you can watch.
Wow, the real time web is amazing! It's like a whole new internet. Now I can always stop everything I'm doing and be distracted from a menaingful life because I like to watch blue trucks drive by on webcams!
Thanks real-time web! Your're certain to keep me more and more distracted everyday!
Spare me the real-time web, I'd trade it all in to be one of the 100,000 to get access to Google Wave next week. Or is it the 144,000 lives that will be spared when the rapture comes next week? I'm not sure? Too many RSS feeds of way too many tech geeks have thoroughly confused me.
Thanks Marshall! That's a good idea - we'll make a real snazzy looking one today and make it available asap. It is a wonderful article and thanks for sharing it....
Yes it will be one more way to be distracted, but it is not bad I think. Because comes new ways how to concentrate, how to learn.
Otherwise another thing is that new business possibilities will be near :)
Ive been on the internet since it was able to be gotten ahold of by consumers. At first I think it was interesting , getting of old BBS systems and out of the AOL online chat rooms into this was very interesting...more free , more fun , more piratey.
But now I have very similiar fears. What we have is just too much for mankind , honestly it is. I also believe it is the demise of humankind and faith in god. Its now more easier to cheat on your wife , cheat on your husband , have secret lives , divulge info , talk about this , gossip about that , connect with old loves that you wouldnt and shouldnt have ever seen again , always being bothered and drawn into dramatic happenings...
Im sure everyone can say oh only if you choose to be drawn in or do that or if you do that. Well guess what , give someone a tool , they will use it for good and bad. There are good things but I think the negative does outweigh at this point. Ive been on forums for 12+ years and I was like some sort of nerd to be socializing with like minded people...now everyone does it and since its not like minded people but friends and family people act is if it is new..
Honestly , everyone is just self gratifying themselves by posting about themselves to people who really dont give a meager care truly about it only to then act as if they do and that we are all connected and how great it is.
Before even trying to lash at my comment. Unplug yourself for 2-3 days , replug in back to nature , earth , yourself , your family. Disconnet the cell , the tv , the computer...then see if im maybe right. Just maybe , if you can handle it , if your not some lazy crumble of good glued to your computer chair. You might think im right. I right now am only using the internet soley for marketing , to make myself money. As well checking in on forums and speaking with my neighbors about get togethers. Other than that....Im not worried about the 30 somethings too much , its the young kids that dont know any better , that follow mommy staring at the nintendo ds walking into her back as she stops. The teenager who finds flashing , videos , stripping or camming is good...sharing photos that shouldnt have even been taken , finding out about subjects way beyond their or anyones years.
The internet has become pandoras box. All I can say is , we did fine without it and I was glad to see it come about , but now...not so sure. Look towards the light and your life. We all have voids to try to fill and we only have one thing that is supposed to go in that void. Only a few know what that void is sadly. As we all fade away from what we were and what this great country was.
I'm in the camp that things have a right to exist by virtue of their own existence. Those who have failed to grasp the potential of social tech will be marginalised soon enough. :)