I've been reading a lot of articles lately which state in one way other another that the internet was just a fad. I think the logic goes "dot coms are dying by the dozens so it must be the internet that's wrong". Even worse is that these statements are coming from people who should know better.
The press is picking up on it for obvious reasons: big things are happening which they cannot explain. The word "fad" is simple and short and even a reporter can understand what it means. Also, it sounds bad, and since most reporters only know how to report bad news, this fits perfectly.
Quick note: if you think I'm being hard on reporters, think again. All you need to do is examine the Los Angeles Rodney King riots to understand why reporters are as a rule not to be trusted. And anyone who thinks that giving publicity to terrorists, killers and other criminals in the interest of "the public has a right to know" or with the excuse of "I'm just doing my job" is evil, in my humble opinion.
Let me be very up front and to the point. The internet is not a fad.
The internet is a new frontier, growing, changing and expanding very rapidly. The rate of change is extraordinarily high - perhaps higher than it has ever been before in human history.
So it's not a fad - it is just changing. If it was a fad then people would get tired of it, turn off their modems and DSL lines and do something else. That's not going to happen.
What is going to happen is that the way that people use and interact with each other on the internet will change, and it will change dramatically. People want things quick and fast, they want it to look good, and they want a better value on the web than they get by driving to the store.
Those companies and web sites that cannot live up to these expectations will die. Those than can may survive.
It's as simple as that.
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