You’re Time’s Person of the Year and no one seems to care!
I subscribe to a lot of industry feeds and I am baffled by the lack of coverage on this years’ Time Person of the Year. For those out of the know, the person of the year this year is you! While Time described the person as generically as “you” — it is more specifically, “us”. Those of us working on the web, creating what has never been created in an attempt to deliver something to which the whole world can be impacted. We don’t do it for wealth, fame or sex (don’t know of many web designers getting laid over their AJAX). Unless you are of the small minority creating the next Google or YouTube — this is the only time you will ever be on the cover of Time Magazine!
Why isn’t everyone rushing to to their local bodega, purchasing a copy and framing it over their desk? You work long hours, passionate about what you do and sometimes, just sometimes you make a huge impact on the community. We work in an amazing industry during an amazing period of time. Like never before, friends are coming together and brining ideas to life — some being sold for well over one and half billion dollars. Your efforts have been recognized and your talents highlighted — you are Time’s Person of the Year! Why does no one care?
The internet revolution has been huge and is ever growing. Many of us are on the forefront of this cultural phenomenon — this economic and socially influencing medium. Time explains their choice for Person of the Year best:
And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME’s Person of the Year for 2006 is you.
That biggest thing that separates today from the days of the DOT COM era is the individual over the corporation. Where in the mid-nineties, it was a growing metropolis in Silicon Valley of companies being creating left-and-right. It seemed as though people were creating and funding companies to produce ideas – where today it is “us” who are generating not only ideas but tangible and successful results. It is the result of “us” and our passion that is being funded now. Google, the so-called King of the Jungle, tried to create a video medium on the web and before closing the door on its own failure; it bought the idea and successful result of that idea from two “kids” with a passion. The days of corporate dominances is over, at least on the web, and it is “you” who create the next big thing – changing how the world looks at the internet or shares information.
We strive to create – some of us through design, some through code and others through words; but we are all working at it together. I look around at people like Alex Giron who created CSSBeauty out more of a need than a desire for money or fame. Or I see Hiten Shah of CrazyEgg who knew there could be a better way to visualize site data; so he went forward to create such a thing! Or, I see Brian Suda who advocates and helps develop Microformats, a technology not yet widely received, not to profit personally but to enhance, shape and share the data in this communication rich medium. The beauty behind our industry is that even if no has heard of you, you haven’t been published or no one reads your blog – your pure existences and contribution however small or large is the only thing that drives and spawns this innovation rich industry. It is our passion, dedication and love of the web that makes “us” Time’s person of the year. So why does it seem like no one cares?
- January 9th, 2007
- 16comments
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Great article. You’re completely right. I guess we don’t have time to show we care…
Thanks for the comment.
I was just shocked when I went to a local meeting of designer/developers and brought this up in conversation — I saw nothing but blank stares.
I don’t think “we” care because most of “us” voted in their poll for person of the year (which Hugo Chavez won), and then they tell us that “our” vote doesn’t count because they changed the winner to “us”… then their polls and their results don’t count either!
Jose, I don’t think Time Magazine ever meant to imply that the results of a “poll” would directly reflect the Person of the Year. And I was under the impression that Hugo didn’t win — I thought “other” was the big winner: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2006/time.poty/
Regardless, if you are apart of this industry (which just being active on Newsvine counts) then why are you not excited is my primary question — hell if a poll went sour and I ended up winning, i would be damn excited.
I think most of us expected that TIME would make us look, our air-brushed, sexy best but we are so, so dull, yawn…
time magazine as an american institution has been dead for some time now.
it just keeps wiggling on occasion to make us think its still relevant.
I don’t care because I don’t want my work to turn me into another self-absorbed monkey.
Not to mention, too many crazy things happened in 2006 to pick “YOU” as the winner.
Rumsfeld resigned damnit! Democrats won midterm elections! Zidane kicked Materazzi’s ass at the World Cup!
I personally thought it was pretty cool - for all the reasons you mention. It justifies my work…users ARE important :D
I am with you bobbi — it is nice to recognized every now and then. It is great to see that the internet and the work we do is bigger than a few geeks at SXSW.
So you’ve turned Time’s goofy award, into a larger pat on the back for yourself because you work on such websites?
hm, the delusional post-ironic snarkers of the blogosphere arent stroking their egos with the glossy pages of time magazine and you’re shocked?
reasons:
1. it’s a magazine. paper. paper is so 2002. the only place “we” read paper magazines is at a medical waiting room, which means we’re either drugged, about to be drugged, in pain, or worried about something. sorry for the bad associations.
2. it’s a copout. 2006 was a very important year. “you” is such a cliche thing. the people who time has picked as person of the year realize that 2005 was really the year of the blogger, not to mention 2004. time is late to the party, and the only people who realize it are the guests of honor, who are already wasted and on to the next big thing.
3. poor cover design. period.
4. YOU? what about ME? fuck this inclusive shit. i can see ME being the person of the year, but not if i’m in some group with trolls, hangers-on and neophytes. bleh.
all i know is that the choice of me for person of the year is already on my resume.
HA HA.
Love the comments. firsty –> keep the comments coming, I laughed out loud.
But, I hear what everyone is saying and I agree in part. My biggest concern is that no one really covered this. I remember the day Google bought YouTube — it was on every blog, some twice (TechCrunch wasn’t even worth reading that week).
And to a3dmofo, I’ve worked on some large scale websites — none that I’d ever claim changed the internet or public perception of that medium. However, the article isn’t really about “me” or “you” — as I stated, it is really about “us”. Picture Newsvine without “us” — it would just be MikeD and his friends sharing news.
More than this being about recognition or having a “pat on the back” — if anything it should be about justification. A little pride in your work if you will.
“all i know is th”at the choice of me for person of the year is already on my resume.“
firsty, That’s got to be the best comment yet for the TIME cover.
Exactly Martin…that article made my parents finally understand what I do for a living. and who I’m actually working for (the internet’s not only for nerds). If nothing else…that was pretty cool. :) It’s not a pat on the back for me - it’s one for the internet at large for proving their worth. And yeah, I’m looking at this with big glossy eyes, but hey, I work in online communities, how could I not have loved it. :)
And dude, I am so going to put person of the year on my resume, I hadn’t thought of that. Awesome idea.
“Exactly Martin…that article made my parents finally understand what I do for a living. and who I’m actually working for (the internet’s not only for nerds). If nothing else…that was pretty cool.“
interesting…it may be that, in reality, 2006 wasnt “our” year so much as it was “their” year. what changed in 2006 was that, finally, the internet is being used for regular people. i’m actually 2 ticks closer to putting my entire extended family onto a private social blogging network as a way to share pictures, plan events, share calendars, ask questions, organize gift-giving, etc.
and thanksgiving 2006 was the year my parents saw my blog not as “one of those chat room things”, or my newsvine contributions not as “one of those chat room things” or my sportingo articles as “one of those chat room things.” pretty much, for the old folks (and my parents arent that old), the internet is finally no longer a giant chat room.
maybe that was TIME’s point. the “you” isnt “us.” it’s “them”.
Same thing happened to me over the holidays - my mom read my blog, my dad joined netflix, both of them discovered Flickr. I think Time’s point was two-fold…everyone has a voice, and everyone really means EVERYONE. Mom and Dad included. :)