Internet Users Are Stupid?

"Welcome to the dark side of Web 2.0, where focused expertise is replaced by rampant amateurism; opinion is mistaken for knowledge; and credentials, degrees, and years of experience mean virtually nothing. Andrew Keen, author of The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet Is Killing Our Culture, is your tour guide"

This is the introduction commentary to Andrew Keen's feature "The Digital Emperor has No Clothes". To summarize, Mr. Keen believes that it is amateurs not professionals who are writing on blogs. I hate to break it to Mr. Keen and Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing (won Nobel Prize, based her speech on how people on computers "lack culture") but not all the writers and creators of Web 2.0 are stupid. Many are college educated, knowledgable people. In a way he is offending people he probably knows.

I do agree with him when he says how it is smart for the New York Times and other traditional newspapers and magazines to offer themselves online. The New York Times has been a part of my childhood. I would come down for breakfast when I was a child and my dad would be reading the paper and drinking his cup of coffee. I would sit next to him and smell the coffee and the paper. This is the strength of the brand. They turned a threat into an opportunity by offering the paper onlne and immersing the site with blogs, podcasts, and continuous updates.