Us we’re Time’s Person of the Year, but are we that interesting? When we blog, post, upload, download, send, share, link and update, we actually control a small part of this world. Is this a self-made medium or are we just diluting the information and entertainment of our lives in a sea of ​​ourselves?

My Chemical Romance was a hit on MySpace. Turns out they suck. For all the hype about MySpace being a bastion for self-expression, it’s not exactly a treasure trove of originality. Chances are the profile you just spent two hours updating looks like nothing more than a color palette flip of the person you just added as a friend. The same goes for your lists of likes, dislikes, favorite movies, and music. That kid from New Jersey with the messy haircut, his claim to fame is how much he loves to party and live it. Look at that emo girl’s profile on your “friends” list, her favorite movie is Requiem for a Dream — Guaranteed. Go ahead, check it out for yourself.

You may have recently updated a Wikipedia article, which begs the question: who made it the authority? The idea of ​​an open, editable and ever-growing encyclopedia is a great idea on paper. But when budding academics use that site, and that site alone, as a reference when writing college papers, we can be in trouble. There are excellent articles on Wikipedia, and some quality references and sources, but given the nature of the freeform elements of that site, there are bound to be discrepancies with the truth. And surely there will be many bulls. When someone says “That’s right, I read it on Wikipedia”, it is advisable to end the conversation.

YouTube has given the world a domain name and some servers. We gave YouTube a household name and some grainy camcorder videos. The 30-second clips recorded on a cell phone from Usher’s last concert aren’t really worth the space on your hard drive. Neither are the endless videos of people in their all-American backyards blowing things up and disgracing his families. For every adorable little girl who takes on Bill O’Reilly, you’ll also see two little boys beating the hell out of each other, attracting the attention of the local police department. There is enough of that kind of throwaway nonsense floating around the internet to make the case for the fall of man. America, the reason your yard is in the back of the house is to prevent the rest of the population from witnessing what happens in it.

It may be nice to call 2006 the year of the professional amateur, but it doesn’t sound good. We need more visible leaders and less fanatics in the blogosphere. Where are the stars of politics, music, movies and sports? Our information, due to its ease of access, needs quality control more than ever. Shouldn’t young people shape their world by going out and doing something instead of hitting the refresh button?

But who the hell am I?