Prompt's TechBlog

Time magazine has named you its Person of the Year for 2006, putting you in the same league as Hitler, Einstein, Stalin and - until its advertisers protested - Osama Bin Laden.

But before you go rushing off to update your CV, start a war or invent your own special theory, let's see if it was really you that Time was thinking of. For the 2006 Person of the Year title hasn't been given to any old 'you', but rather those of you who have contributed to the global media revolution that is Web 2.0.

In Time's own words, this year's Person of the Year is anyone who "made Facebook profiles and Second Life avatars and reviewed books at Amazon and recorded podcasts. [Who] blogged about our candidates losing and wrote songs about getting dumped. [Who] camcordered bombing runs and built open-source software."

For all its bandwagoneering (Wired, for example, hailed the users as the driving force of the 'new' Web way back in August 2005), Time has a good point. Its Person of the Year title is bestowed upon the individual or individuals who had the most impact on the media agenda in that year. And while there are plenty of individuals who (for better or worse) dominated the political, social and environmental stage in 2006, it was the bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers and amateur reviewers who continued to turn the whole concept of 'the media' on its head - to the extent that even old media behemoths like Time have no choice but to acknowledge defeat and join in the fray.

And for that, 'you' should be justly proud.


tags: time magazine | person of the year