Everything That’s Potentially Worrying About the Real-time Web

Weezer, plane crashes and everything else that’s worrying about the real-time web by Paul Carr

…what were we all doing? Filming and tweeting and checking in rather than just putting our phones away and enjoying the gig. Why does the world need two thousand photos of the same band on the same stage, all taken from a slightly different angle. That kind of 360 degree imagery might have been useful on the day Kennedy was shot – not least because it would have kept Oliver Stone quiet – but for a Weezer gig?

…And yet this real-time mentality – pictures/tweets or it didn’t happen – continues to seep into every aspect of our lives, both personally and professionally. Whereas once we might attend a conference to watch the speakers and perhaps learn something, today our priority is to live blog it – to ensure our followers know we’re on the inside…

Real-Time is a Collaboration by Kevin Makice

The second key assumption is that the real-time web is an individual activity. It isn’t. Individuals are involved, but the appeal and value of real-time content is in the sheer number of people participating and the wide range of personal experiences they capture.

…With new information comes new skills and opportunity for reflection. We see this happening all the time with the evolving strategies of Twitter use…The value you see today may not be the same value you will see tomorrow. People change.

It would be a mistake to adopt a utopian view and discount Carr’s critique. However, I believe that what will ultimately emerge from real-time web is a Zen awareness in the here and now. The current flaws in this beast can and will be overcome.

And from the comments to the original TechCrunch article:

Too long, please translate into 140 characters.

It’s a Shrodinger’s tweet phenomemon.

I have a two part response to all this, and hopefully it won’t take me weeks to compose it, but it will take longer than right now, so for now, I leave these without comment. These will become links to the follow up posts, however:

Editor’s Note: He would never write these posts.

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