TIME's Person of the Year: You

[DeepModem Mom]

CNN/TIME: Person of the Year: You
December 16, 2006



From the December 25, 2006 issue of TIME magazine

....To be sure, there are individuals we could blame for the many painful and disturbing things that happened in 2006....But look at 2006 through a different lens and you'll see another story, one that isn't about conflict or great men. It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.

The tool that makes this possible is the World Wide Web. Not the Web that Tim Berners-Lee hacked together (15 years ago, according to Wikipedia) as a way for scientists to share research. It's not even the overhyped dotcom Web of the late 1990s. The new Web is a very different thing. It's a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter. Silicon Valley consultants call it Web 2.0, as if it were a new version of some old software. But it's really a revolution.

And we are so ready for it. We're ready to balance our diet of predigested news with raw feeds from Baghdad and Boston and Beijing. You can learn more about how Americans live just by looking at the backgrounds of YouTube videos -- those rumpled bedrooms and toy-strewn basement rec rooms -- than you could from 1,000 hours of network television.

And we didn't just watch, we also worked. Like crazy. We made Facebook profiles and Second Life avatars and reviewed books at Amazon and recorded podcasts. We blogged about our candidates losing and wrote songs about getting dumped. We camcordered bombing runs and built open-source software.

America loves its solitary geniuses -- its Einsteins, its Edisons, its Jobses -- but those lonely dreamers may have to learn to play with others. Car companies are running open design contests. Reuters is carrying blog postings alongside its regular news feed. Microsoft is working overtime to fend off user-created Linux. We're looking at an explosion of productivity and innovation, and it's just getting started, as millions of minds that would otherwise have drowned in obscurity get backhauled into the global intellectual economy....

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/16/time.you.tm/index.html

[babylonsister]

1. And DU has weighed in; they're wusses because they couldn't address

a person or event to make an impact, so they soft-balled it. I agree. Instead of picking someone or something that might effect conversation or change, they slugged it.

[Erika]

2. They were indeed wusses

They played it PC correct.

[JI7]

7. they have been ever since they didn't put Bin Laden in 2001

and instead Giuliani????????

it has turned into a joke, instead of being what it was traditionally which is about what made the news. it seems to have turned into some honorary thing. and of course they are trying to sell with this type of thing.

[babylonsister]

10. I can't wait for the media spin in the a.m. "Oh, how magnanimous of them! "

:eyes:

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

29. It should have been Rumsfeld.

Or Rumsfeld-Cheney-Wolfowitz. Is there anybody else who has made more of an impact this year?

[calimary]

31. I would say the American voters, from November 7th. That made a

HUGE impact on this year and at least the two years to come. HUGE. A real sea change. Even Time has covered it - couldn't be helped, frankly.

Yeah. They weenied out. Although I will say this: if the election had gone the other way, kkkarl rove would be the Person of the Year. I have absolutely no doubt.

Besides, if the "YOU" includes me, there's no way I can take that cover to the bank and claim any benefits from that allegedly newly-bestowed national status. That and a dime will get me a few minutes on a parking meter. Hey, Time, keep it. Don't insult me.

[Mythsaje]

3. I like my smart-ass response...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2933043&mesg_id=2933043

Okay...smartass, but thoughtful too.

[MADem]

4. Oh, poooooooo leeeeeeeeeeeeze! That's their frigging pick?

I think it shoulda gone to George, for his miring us so deep in the muck we'll have to struggle for a decade to get out...IF we're strong.

Or Rummy, who dug the hole and tossed us in.

Or Nasrallah, who waved the northern flag against a bull who tended to doze when looking north.

Or even fucking K-Fed, who showed us that the fucker can be every bit as pathetic as the fuck-ee.

It doesn't always have to be a saint, just as often it's the biggest sinner.

To kick the can down the lane to "YOU" suggests that YOU, Fucking TIME, are on that surfboard with Fonzie. You and your foolish "ManPerson of the Year horseshit have well and truly lept over that ole shark!!!! What unbelievable cowards!

Say, thanks for posting this. It's sad...but we do need to know~!

[babylonsister]

6. That's you, too, brother.

I'm glad it wasn't dimson or Rummy; they both have enough coverage to gag me. But 'you', i.e. us? That's lame. Seems like they didn't know which way to go. Does Newsweek do this, because I'll just bet they'll go a different route. And FWIW, I think Gore and Pelosi were in the running. So they picked you/me????

[MADem]

12. I know, and I and the rest of us, well, we've been screaming for five or six years now

It takes that long to get feedback? Well, fuck 'em. If I wanted to bang my head against an immovable, rock-hard object I'm sure I could find a stone wall and TCB in less than five or six damned years!!!!

But hey, huge payday? Minds COULD be changed......

Seriously, "You" (meaning us, and everyone who pipes up, I reckon) is lame. Time's YOU should have gotten this dumb award when all of those YOUSE wuz marching in the streets during Vietnam...

Like GWB'd never seen a legless kid in a wheelchair...as the commander in chief.....welll, maybe that IS likely.....

Rh, no compassion, either, eh?

Hmmmmm.....guess not!

[blitzen]

5. The only thing lamer than Time's Person of the Year is their choosing

You as Person of the Year.

They really should put this annual malarkey to bed--permanently.

[Jennicut]

8. Total Wimps! It should have been the Axis of Incompetence

as said so by them! Bushie-the believer, Cheney-the enforcer, and Rummy-the executer. "You" is lame.

[blitzen]

9. so some freeper somewhere is Person of the Year?

[tabatha]

11. Actually,

I think their write-up about individual creativity and the open-source movement is one of the most powerful I have read for keeping the networks free and open. YouTube is a huge phenomnen.. but it would be nothing without the "you", and that is the point. I think the Time award was right on. I am amazed at the variety and quality of blogs on the web; I have started loading my pictures onto Flickr - thinking that it would be just a repository of pictures; but there is so much more with respect to the community. And if you would like to see a great use of Web 2.0, see this site:

http://www.wildcast.net/

[LTR]

15. I agree with you

And stuff the whiney naysayers on this thread and their one-track minds of misery. Some people just want to find things to bitch about.

You nailed it, and I thought about it too when I read the article. We are quickly becoming the media. Years ago, the only way to really be heard was to get a job in the media. Now, all we need is a computer and our voices shout all over the world.

It wasn't my exact prediction (I thought they'd be ordinary and pick Pelosi), but it's different, yet so obvious. I actually like the choice, and am proud to be Time magazine's "Person of the Year".

[magellan]

19. I agree, this was a good pick

I wouldn't have complained if they'd gone with the Axis of Incompetence (Bush**/Cheney/Rummy) or with Al Gore for focusing attention on the threat of global warming. But finally recognizing the power the internet gives the average person to disseminate information and build communities was a good call, and a gutsy one too since the blogosphere is their competition. And it can only help the argument for net neutrality.

[Silver Gaia]

20. I agree...

I especially liked this line in the article:

"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."

Yeah, so it's unexpected and different. But I think it makes some great points for freedom of the net, and I also happen to agree with its implications. THIS is where things are happening, and it's up to US, ya know...

[all.of.me]

30. i love it!

[applegrove]

33. Agreed.

[Matariki]

37. I agree with you too. It's good to see the media acknowledge what's going on.

and how peer to peer communication and individual expression is changing everything - especially how it's impacting *their* field.

[Nailzberg]

13. Cop out

[LTR]

14. ME?????

NO WAY!!!

And YOU too???

COOL!!!

I kinda got the feeling Time would go this route. They often try to be unpredictable. And It's not a bad choice.

[Contrite]

16. Chickenshits. Chavez was leading in the poll on line.

With Ahmadinejad in second place. Maybe that's why they did this.

[anotherdrew]

17. they're deftly touching on collective responsibility for what has been permitted

of course the responsibility lies with editors far before it does with "us"

[PoiBoy]

18. My choice

:hi:

[anotherdrew]

21. by YOU they mean ME? or WHO? ... WE? ... they mean - "me"

it's recycled "the 'me-generation'" crap

put time magazine down and never pick it up again

[GoddessOfGuinness]

40. Yup. Me, me, me...

:puke:

[CJCRANE]

22. It should have been: You - the American Voter

for kicking the Republicans to the kerb.

That was the biggest shockwave this year in global politics.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

25. I agree completely. If "I'm" getting recognition, I want it to be for our voter voice.

I guess I'll take this, though. The blogsphere has definitely started impacting the MSM. MKJ

[TomClash]

23. Thanks but no thanks

I reject their phony honor and so whould all of us.

[lanlady]

24. I was hoping they'd pick Nancy Pelosi

But when was the last time they ever picked a woman?

[MADem]

27. Ah, but she is "only" the most senior female in government, ever!!

Guess that wasn't enough for them...or they were afraid of being seen as 'partisan'....of course, when they pick the likes of Giuliani, they have the nerve to call that Assclown "America's Mayor." Not mine, certainly....but that wouldn't stop them!

[BlueStater]

34. Not counting the Whistleblowers or Melinda Gates?

Corazón Aquino in 1986.

[Vinca]

26. Haven't read the piece yet, but maybe it will help in keeping the

"Internets" free and fair. I actually think it's a good choice - "we" have changed the course, the status quo, over the past few months. Would George Allen still be a senator without YouTube? I think he would be. Just one example of many.

[Earth_First]

28. What?! No Al Gore jab on inventing the internets?

:shrug:

:sarcasm:

[BenDavid]

32. Excuse me, but

where is my share of the prize money? What? They going to give us all a years free subscription to TIME?

[Omphaloskepsis]

35. Just think about it...

This is going to look fantastic on your resume.

[AX10]

36. "You, the people" did utilize all of this information to kick the...

GOP of power.

[AZBlue]

38. What a lame choice.

eom

[dpbrown]

39. What a fucking cop-out

You? Me? What bogus garbage.

[Zavulon]

41. I know we've all heard stuff like this before, but

once I get to read the letters to the editor on this choice, I'm done with the magazine for good.

[samsingh]

42. Time is chicken to give the title to deserving left=wingers

like President Al Gore.

[CarlWoodward]

43. Ridiculous choice

I'm not saying that YouTube and MySpace and Second Life aren't fun and interesting and even occasionally informative. But to somehow conclude that these online communities - which are largely made up of white, educated, upper-middle-class Americans - had a greater global impact in 2006 than any individual person is absolutely ridiculous.

The whole story reeks of late-90s era Internet hype. I had thought the media had learned its lesson back then. Apparently not.