Media @ LSE Group Weblog » Blog Archive » Dangerously overstating the significance of Web 2.0:

While I am by any measure a heavy user of Web 2.0 technologies, the sunny optimism of this video and the absence of a wider social perspective on the phenomenon really irks me. The fact remains that according to a recent survey only a little more than a quarter of US online users have ever tagged anything and only 7% of them do so daily. And who are the people who tag (and by extension use a variety of Web 2.0 services?). As Pew notes, “classic early adopters of technology. They are more likely to be under age 40, and have higher levels of education and income.” Eszter Hargittai’s earlier research bears out this relative lack of interest in Web 2.0 usage – even among American college students. Hell, this video itself, although it is the toast of the blogosphere at the moment, has been viewed less than 20,000 times. Doesn’t that say something about the limited scale of interest in Web 2.0?

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David makes some interesting points about web2.0 technology following the wesch video. he is spot on, though I’m not sure that Eszter’s study can really be generalized, it is clear from my classes that far fewer people know and use these technologies than one might suspect. however, it should also be noted that capitalism does not need ‘everyone’ to operate, nor do other socio-economic forms. early-adopters, if sustained, are usually enough to perpetuate a service.