Several years ago, observers more optimistic than TAC hailed the ascendancy of the internet as the dawn of “The Information Age”. It’s a lovely idea. Unfortunately it’s a fantasy.
The internet certainly has wonderful applications for people interested in gathering information. And there are a lot of people who use the internet in that way. But, by far, the internet is quickly evolving into an entertainment medium.
YouTube, iTunes, gaming, gambling, pornography, Facebook, and the myriad copycats of these websites are overwhelming the "information" aspect of the web. It is becoming a medium of entertainment, gossip, and chatter.
Even in its infancy, the web was more a "communications" medium than an "information" medium, with email quickly becoming the primary application.
While it will probably always retain some aspect of all three uses -- information, communication and entertainment -- one look at Google's most searched list is all it takes to realize that we are in The Entertainment Age and that the internet has become its great enabler.
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