Nerd Arts

Andrew Keen is on a mission to discredit bloggers, and cooperative internet sites such as Digg, Myspace, YouTube, Wikipedia, Reddit, and Technorati. Andrew Keen’s argument basically boils down to this. Before there were systems in place which prevented normal people from being published and read. Back in the Andrew Keen Utopia (which I’m not certain ever existed) writers had to contact a publisher who would have the expertise to see what was good and what was shit (never mind nepotism, classism, race, and gender issues here). The same went for music, as well as art. Each of these institutions had individuals (generally old white men) held the keys to an artists success. Andrew Keen believes they were good at their jobs (something I don’t necessarily disagree with) and that today there is a rise of what he calls “The Cult of the Amateur“. People who aren’t certified to give their opinions on politics are beginning to share them, and worse yet, people are reading it. Andrew Keen represents the voice of a dying print media. A mainstream media which is searching for relevance against an increasingly skeptical public. The mainstream media cheerleading of the Iraq war (prior to it beginning) and the media blackout of Ron Paul both being classic examples of a public which has now turned on the mainstream establishment press.

Andrew Keen makes a few mistakes. He believes that people should be made aware that there are viral campaigns which are funded by corporations, and that there will be product placement inside of youtube videos and the like. So what he’s preaching is basically that one should be skeptical of the current media structure on the internet. Fine, no problem with that, however what I do have a problem with is how stupid he thinks people are. The saying “I read it on the internet so it must be true” is already widely received as an ironic statement. So the public already has become savvy enough to believe that everything they read online is not always verifiable, and that they may need to acquire more sources on an issue before they make up their minds. Which leads me to my second point which is the availability of multiple sources. One can go to the Fox News website where they still refuse to use the word “crime” in conjunction with Scooter Libby, then they can hop over to CNN and see what they have to say about it, then they can do a technorati search and find out what some guy in Iowa just wrote about 15 minutes ago. (as people will do with this very article). The skepticism has more to do with the spin which is done on both sides, and leads to a more well informed public, not a dumbed down one. Watch the Jon Stewart on crossfire video to see what happens when this type of an individual goes on a show which is already supposed to represent “both sides” of an issue. The simple fact is that Both Sides no longer exist. I would consider myself generally to the left on most issues, yet I still want to see Ron Paul kick some republican ass.

Another problem that Andrew Keen makes in his theories is that he believes that there is no longer any oversight from an authoritative figure as to what is good, and what is crap. As any blogger knows, there is a huge hierarchy on the net, if you get on BoingBoing.net or the front page of Digg your blog will never be looked at the same by Google again, and your back links will give you a higher Page Rank. Sure these systems can be rigged, and there is a sort of inbreeding which probably goes on within them, however the fact still remains that it’s really hard to get people to read anything you write. I’m not calling myself an expert on the internet and political theory, maybe 100 people will read this. Andrew Keen on the other hand is calling himself an expert which breeds a sort of arrogance which in turn, of course, makes people skeptical of his message. He raises a few interesting points, and he certainly is no stranger to the net, he actually still blogs almost daily (don’t even point out the irony of that to me), and he has been running popular websites for years. Andrew Keen demonstrates a black and white view of the world mixed with an angry old man who consistently rails against the way things are now, and how it used to be better back in the day. Sorry, your time is up. Adapt or face extinction.

Another anti web 2.0 blog post (I know I know, don’t even bother) from Michael Gorman
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