More Ways the Web Has Changed Us

NHPR webmaster Brady Carlson put together his own list of ways the web has changed us:

1) Broadband and wireless as game-changers.
There is no YouTube revolution if we’re all on dialup. Cell phones become portable computers instead of mere communication devices. It also creates a cultural expectation that we have access wherever we go. Realtors have told me through Public Insight, for example, that homebuyers ask about internet access when they’re looking at a house, the way they’d ask about the water system or the electrical.

2) The emergence of the “online profile.”
The sum of information about us on the web is now treated as our public profile; employers use it to evaluate potential employees, and individuals are now encouraged to “curate” and “brand” themselves. Some go to great lengths to control this message, or at least manage it (think of “Comcast Cares,” which is hugely successful). The advent of the viral “YouTube” moment has led to an abundance of caution in some circles – there are a lot of clips now of politicians refusing to talk to guys with digicams, because they’re concerned about becoming the next George “Macaca” Allen.

3) The expectation that information is on the internet – and that it’s free. Culturally, this is huge, for obvious reasons. For web-based companies, this is more problematic, because traditional companies are not accustomed to a world where free is the expected going rate. There are success stories – iTunes and Kindle seem to work, even when there are often free models available – but not every industry has found its model yet. coughJOURNALISMcough Sorry, I had something caught in my throat.

Further: issues of trust - Wikipedia is a top search result on Google, but we know Wikipedia can be unreliable or just plain inaccurate. And many journalists use it as a source, even if they don’t admit as such.

4) Remix and sharing culture.
What started as a copyright lawyer’s nightmare has become a huge part of web culture. YouTube’s greatest innovation was not just its use of Flash player (though that was a huge innovation) but that it allowed people to embed content on their own sites. It’s web 101 now to go to where people are instead of forcing them to come to you. Additionally, memes so often now come from content that’s been repurposed – I Can Has Cheeseburger, Rickrolling, Keyboard Cat, and so on. The impact of Creative Commons and collaborative projects like Wikipedia is quietly enormous – we know that firsthand from our own photo use.