Web 2.0 Cures Cancer, Here’s Proof

Ken Wheaton wrote a brilliantly funny article on Ad Age today titled “Web 2.0 Cured My Cancer and Made Me Taller — and Rich!” I laughed pretty hard after a first reading. But then I thought about what he was trying to say and it’s made me think more than laugh. I think some of what he  trying to say about the hype around Web 2.0 is very valid. Here are some excerpts:

Then Web 2.0 came into my life. Until then, I’d just been coasting along with Web 1.0. To think I never would have embraced Web 2.0 if it hadn’t been for a handful of dedicated bloggers and boosters. I resisted at first. Why get bogged down in another distraction, something that adds another layer of work to everyday life yet provides no tangible monetary or social benefits? But they showed me I was wrong, that my response was simply fear and a lack of understanding. So what if they were trying to make a quick buck convincing others that Web 2.0 was the answer to all their problems?

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Then came Facebook. Thanks to Facebook, I can now check my e-mail to find out that I’ve received a message, then go to Facebook to read that message and reply to it there. Before I had to communicate via e-mail (or, worse, the phone). Thanks to Facebook, I overcame the cancer, shed the extra pounds and grew another six inches.

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You naysayers can laugh all you want. You’re just troglodytes caught up in old-word illusions like “ROI” and “profit” and “sales.” You probably scoffed at pioneering technologies such as Betamax, CueCat and Friendster, too, didn’t you? You talk trash about Web 2.0 and we’ll use the power of social media to bankrupt you just like we did Pepsi and Motrin!

What do you think? Share your thoughts below.