The Decade in Review: Wrapping Up 2000-2009

As 2009 comes to a close, many analysts around the web are taking time to reflect on the first decade of the new millennium. Rather than looking into the wayback machine for ourselves, however, we thought it might be fun to do a wrap-up of some of the best reviews of the decade floating around the Internet.

Curious about which social networking website had the greatest impact in the 2000’s? Wondering what year Facebook took off and MySpace began to lose popularity? Look no further, because we’ve compiled the best analysis of Internet trends and news from the decade that Time Magazine has called the “Decade from Hell.”

Mashable Says YouTube is the Top Social Media Innovation of the Decade

According to Mashable, no social media website had a bigger impact than YouTube. While I would argue that Facebook and its 350 million users make a pretty strong case, it’s hard to argue with Adam Ostrow’s logic.

From the post:

YouTube didn’t even exist for more than half the decade, but a perfect storm of increasing bandwidth, advances in Flash, and the rise of social networks (where YouTube content could be embedded) made 2005 the perfect time for the site to make its debut. The growth was meteoric, and within 18 months, the website became one of the most trafficked on the web and the company was sold to Google for .6 billion.

Ostrow goes on to point out the numerous specific ways that YouTube has had an impact on our culture, citing the rise in citizen journalism (felt nowhere more strongly than during this year’s Iranian election protests), the ability to become an overnight celebrity (countless “YouTube stars” have extended their 15 minutes of fame), and the move by television companies and movie studios to release content to YouTube (and its competitor Hulu).

While I don’t spend as much time on YouTube anymore, I’ll be the first to admit that I used to waste many hours on the site. When I’m looking for an old TV commercial, music video, cartoon, or whatever hot viral video is sweeping the web, YouTube is the first place I turn. That definitely makes it an important social media innovation in my book.

The Village Voice Says Social Media Ruined the Internet

In an amusing twist on the typical reflection article, the folks at The Village Voice have been compiling ten reasons why 2000 to 2009 sucked. To close their list, they’ve decided to explain how social media ruined the Internet. Picking apart many of the things that have come to define the web as we now know it, The Village Voice article saves its most vehement criticism for blogs. In particular, the Voice discusses how, in the early days, most blogging revolved around attacking public figures.

From the post:

Online Journalism Review called 2004 “the year bloggers made a difference,” not because it had improved the national discourse, but because it had destroyed the career of Dan Rather. When bloggers helped take down Trent Lott, John Podhoretz called him “The Internet’s First Scalp,” and exulted, “there’s nothing more exciting than watching a new medium mature before your eyes” — as if the ability to ruin a politician, as newspapers had done for decades, were a sign of maturity.

Since 2004, blogging has definitely become a more refined and generally accepted form of communication. Unfortunately, the problem of defamation online hasn’t abated. While some victims of anonymous slander have successfully argued their cases in court, the vast majority of individuals don’t have the time and resources needed to fight back against cyberbullies. In the new decade, it will be interesting to see how the law changes to protect individuals from having their reputations damaged on the web.

Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post Talks About “The Evolution of Media in the Awful Aughts”

Many pundits have talked about the death of traditional media thanks to the evolution of digital technologies, but few have done so as eloquently as the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz. In his two-page analysis of the past decade, Kurtz explores how the traditional media model has drifted away from hard reporting toward sensationalistic tabloid journalism and how the business model for print content is no longer viable in the Internet age.

Conversely, Kurtz discusses how new media technology, despite its occasional clunkiness and privacy lapses, has made information gathering more efficient and opened up communications for the masses.

From the post:

If the declining health of the traditional media is the barometer, the ’00s have been an unmitigated bummer. But the past decade has also brought such digital delights as Twitter, where I learn new things every day. Those posting there provide links to stories that eluded my radar, striking observations about the news, zingers in ongoing debates, and perhaps a funny line or two. Many of those I follow are journalists and pundits, but some are regular folks who have dived into the rolling conversation, no credentials necessary.

Sometimes I think back to the cumbersome business of information-gathering when you actually had to call people rather than pinging them by e-mail. I can remember searching for ancient newspaper articles on microfilm; going to the Justice Department to pore over lobbying records; visiting C-SPAN to watch videotapes of campaign commercials from far-flung local races. Now huge storehouses of knowledge are available with a couple of mouse clicks.