Thanks for that... but no thanks.

So Time Magazine has named us Person of the Year 2006. Us who have access to the web and spend time in it creating our own environment by sharing files, launching weblogs, participating in discussion forums, downloading our songs in MySpace, posting our home-made videos on YouTube. It seems that we are changing the world. Are we?
We know that these sources were made available to us by the latest technologies and by a few clever software wizards who used their knowledge to create them. They are certainly changing the lives - or more straightforwardly, the life-styles - of a vast number of people among the world's population. It is just not so clear whether that vast number of people are changing anything for good. Having the chance to create our own environment and to have it accessible to the world may give us a sense of empowerment. It is very easy to go from there and talk about democratization of the information era. But if it is more easier to conclude that all those expectations will slip into a false-consciousness: that the web is making us all equals. That the information available will be less biased. I hope nobody is buying into that idea.
From my own experience, I don't think that people downloading clips on YouTube will change our perception of the world. If it happens it is the exception rather than the rule. Maybe the recent clip from a young Iran-American being tasered by the police at an American university wouldn't become available by other means. But that is a drop in the ocean of images we download just for the sake of the moment. Clips from films, live shows, music videos and sporting events are a welcoming source for those who are interested in those areas of entertainment. But they won't replace the pleasure of experiencing them live or first hand.
Weblogs... their impact is done in strength of who you are before you create them. If you are a reputed journalist or politician you may make an impact in the public sphere with the more personal thoughts you put there. But even so, it would need the people's availability to focus their attention in... people rather than on the news or its outlets. If you are a common bloke, no matter how brilliant the blog is it should only impact in your friends and relatives.
MySpace is where I am mostly inclined to see an impact because it allows bands and single artists to show their music (and other art forms) to a wider community. With music being the hook it can make a difference to the music industry - as it has been proved with the likes of Lily Allen, the Arctic Monkeys and several others now.
So called Web 2.0 is changing the lives in the Western world for sure. But it is mostly in our leisure time, I believe. And not necessarily for the best.