St. Augustine's Two Cities [Revised, 2nd Ed.]

If The Digital Emperor Has No Clothes, maybe it is time that we find them for him (or being forced to be politically correct, "her"). Andrew Keen, Stephen Colbert, and myself are all "elitist" because we worry about UGC. As stated nicely by Keen,

"I’ll always trust the expertise of a Harvard professor over an anonymous blogger or a high school Wikipedia editor. And if that makes me a believer in an elitist meritocracy, then so be it."

I thought to myself a minute about that quote, and realized the implications: we are breeding a dumb generation. The reason for this is simple: knowledge is passed from one generation to the next (look at history, the winner's always [re]write the books). Living in the ADD Generation , we want our answers NOW, not in 10 minutes. We want to find them as quickly as possible (INTERNET). Wikipedia, though "outlawed" by many academic institutions, is becoming the standard for fast, useful information (that has potential to be inaccurate) [as a side note, I find it funny that this is being written right next to the "Wikipedia Widget" I have on my sidebar on my blog, and have purposefully titled -- as a joke -- "The ACADEMIC Search"]. We are heading to a dangerous place...

So where else are we headed? We are headed, like St. Augustine of Hippo wrote about, Two Cities (though not of Man nor God):

The Over-Idealistic City:
According to websites and blogs such as Changemakers and Fatdoor's Blog, social networking and capitol should be that warm fuzzy feeling that one gets when they realize that their Blackberry just connected to a place to donate money to a homeless organization (because they saw 7 people on a block looking for change). Then, I'll get a text message that Edna, age 85, who doesn't have enough money to provide for her medications, needs help moving out. So I will high tail it over there to help her out once I leave the soup kitchen, where I was working. Then, I can go to Rethos.com and use social networking to find non-profit organizations. Ah, the power of the liberals in us all! Let's all go make a difference!

The REAL City:
Are you serious? Let's be honest, this is America: we only care about our self-serving interests and needs and do not understand the economic ramifications of spending an extra 50¢ on guacamole at Chipotle instead of helping a homeless person to get a meal, which could save his/her life, and in turn who could possibly save another's life (and thus pay it forward mentality). What? Edna needs help moving out? Edna is not in my family and just had a hip and knee replacement? I'm not helping her out, but I SURE will help out Cristina, the 26-year old hot Mexican girl who is trying to move in and has a sexy accent. I'll even make her food for her moving in...and what? she doesn't have a boyfriend (and I'm single)? Then I am DEFINITELY helping her move in. Bye Edna...

Now that I'm done reflecting society while sounding like a self-loathing a-hole, it really is truly sad. Change is inevitble, and hopefully it is to a place where education, helping out one's neighbor (regardless of looks, etc.), helping out the poor (but the whole "you can feed a man for a day, but if you teach him how to fish he'll have food for the rest of his life...and sit in a boat and drink beer" philosophy). It might very well be that the Internet, UGC and social networking, as attractive as it all sounds, will be our very destruction. I'm interested to see how others feel...

[insert nails on the chalkboard sound] user generated content

Reading the article Death to User-Generated Content
struck a harmonious chord in my head. "IT'S PERFECT!" I thought to myself. In fact, those "junkies" are not like drug junkies, but high school junkies infesting Facebook and MySpace. Their form is so robotic and predictable: post a stupid photo, video, or some other kind of content and EXPECT a result with "LMAO! OMG no she didn't! ROFL!" It drives me insane. "Authentic media" sounds so much more interesting than "user generated content" (UGC). UGC sounds like a social faux pas and so "blah".

It is interesting even what Al Gore is trying to do with Current TV (though he needs someone who is better at coming up with names), allowing other users to (please forgive my phrasing) generate content. It is another step closer to reality television. He has nabbed an Emmy for it with his partner in the project, Joel Hyatt. Now, the only thing they are/are still missing: that tiny group called an audience. The problem is that it might not be with the actual programming itself, though it could be of poor quality; rather, it could be because of the association that many view as slimy with Al Gore at the helm (and Joel Hyatt). According to author Brian Stelter, in the article Al Gore's Other Cause: Current TV,

"Current is now available in 41 million U.S. households, and 11 million more in Britain and Ireland. Derek Baine, a media analyst with the research firm SNL Kagan, estimated the channel earned 11 cents a month for each subscriber, more than most other young cable channels."

Then again, maybe people would rather just get what they want for free from [insert nails on the chalkboard sound] user generated content and YouTube. Or it is Al Gore...