Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Don't Be Scared of the Stream

NPR has published yet another ridiculous essay about how we should fear the Internet.

In this one, Eyder Peralta compares the rise of the 'stream' paradigm online to the plight of Edmund Andrews, the guy whose story about losing his house to love (and lack of financial tact) was published in the New York Times Magazine.

As Peralta writes:
In the near past, in my parents' time, Americans toiled in the now to save enough to buy a house in the future. In the New York Times Magazine this weekend, Edmund Andrews, wrote that his personal financial disaster started when he wanted a house now to make his marriage better, to make his family better -- now.


But, Edmund Andrews is a TERRIBLE example. Most Americans did NOT do what he did. Most Americans have been relatively responsible through this financial and housing crisis. The case of Edmund Andrews hardly amounts to a symbol of how the 'stream' paradigm is ruining our ability to deal with life in responsible ways.

What's really going on is that the democratizing aspect of the Web -- the use of social and participatory media, for example -- is finally being uncovered/discovered by the masses (and by the mass media). Some of us (ok, a few tens of millions) have been using this stuff for years and haven't fallen into a state of disaster on account of it yet.

Stop with the scary-business already.

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