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Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009
The Web thrill is gone, according to the New York Times, thanks to a critical shortage of flashes in the pan.
Apr 1, 2002 | Last week, in what was surely the strangest obituary for the Web yet, the New York Times published a feature complaining that the Web is now officially washed up because it no longer provides a sufficiently diverting stream of trivial amusements.
"What attracted many people to the Web in the mid-1990's," read the lead article in the Times' Circuits section, "were the bizarre and idiosyncratic sites that began as private obsessions and swiftly grew into popular attractions" -- bagatelles like the Cambridge Coffee Cam, the Fish Tank Cam, the Jennicam, the Telegarden or the ill-fated Web soap opera "The Spot." (The latter, hardly a "private obsession," was a thoroughly commercial undertaking from day one, but never mind.)
Since the online universe apparently no longer coughs up as abundant a supply of "Am I Hot or Am I Not"-style novelties, the entire digital realm, we are to understand, has grown cold and dull. "We lost our sense of wonder," proclaims Glenn Davis, whose claim to fame was his creation of the original Cool Site of the Day listing. "The Web is old hat."
Old hat! That hurts. The Times' headline -- "As the Web Matures, Fun Is Hard to Find" -- conjured the strange image of Old Man Web as a wan roui, staggering through hotel lobbies in the wee hours, desperately seeking one more good time from jaded Web sites that once put out for him but now prefer to turn out the lights early.
Now, those of you with memories longer than a few months will recall that, once upon a time, back in the days before "dot-com" became a household term (and long before it became an insult), the mainstream press looked upon the Web, turned up its nose and sniffed: "What is this motley media universe, in which people are free to post paeans to their pets? Are we supposed to take seriously an amateurish collection of typo-ridden fan sites and unedited gossip? Where's the beef?"
Now, proclaims the Times, the problem with the Web is that it's too "mature" to provide us with captivating ephemera. Once we sneered at them, but now we want more dancing babies! Bring on another Hamster Dance! Forget the beef -- where's Mahir the lovesick Turkish accordion player when you need him?
Somehow, Times writer Lisa Guernsey equates some slowing of the Web's ability to mint instant pop-culture memes with a "lack of compelling content" -- as though the presence on the Web of every major newspaper, magazine, radio and TV show; every major government agency, most legislative bodies and court systems; nearly every significant retailer and manufacturer; and every think tank, research center and institution of higher learning were insufficiently "compelling content" compared to the supposed dearth of inane diversions crippling the Web today.
