Web 2.0 in the spotlight of criticism

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Last week two articles were published that did not leave me indifferent : an interview in El Periódico with the winner of the Josep Pla prize, Llucia Ramis, and her novel Egosurfing , and the article in El País: Uncertainties of the Web 2. 0 , by José María Álvarez Monzoncillo (which Francesc brought me ). Both are related to the Internet, the Web 2.0 and the unfulfilled promises of a situation that, they explain, could be another dot-com bubble. Or maybe not.

Flickr and Creative Commons. Gallery by YeahjaleaH , June 2008
Flickr and Creative Commons. Gallery by YeahjaleaH , June 2008

According to Ramis, egosurfing is a practice centered on physician data narcissism and consists of searching for information about oneself on the Internet . This practice is activated in the novel by a plot that relates a reality show editor , a self-help writer and a man accused of domestic violence who has a garbage bag fall on him.

In the interview with El Periódico, Ramis comments that: "We need to attract attention, to become the reference point for understanding what is happening. We are looking for confirmation that we are important , we are children saying look what I have done ," in relation to Facebook and Twitter.

The characters in her novel, like on the Internet, "explain to people they don't know many more things than they would explain to their own family. They pretend to be someone other than themselves, they connect with each other in a very strange way, as happens on social networks on the Internet. And all these relationships have an objective in which the self is the most important thing: flirting, finding work... They show themselves as they are not in order to get what they want ."

Regarding the social network Facebook, he is blunt: "What I see on Facebook is pure exhibitionism . Intimacy is no longer possible. It's addictive, but anyone can sneak into your house. We have everyone's life in our house and we are in everyone's house."

I cannot make a contrasting analysis of the social behavior of the human being that the author writes about, but I can say that selfishness, egocentrism, lack of values ​​and confidence are not current evils, much less typical of a medium such as the Internet . They are characteristics of the human being, perhaps enhanced on a greater scale by the capacity to amplify the message on the network, freedom of expression and the usability that certain online tools present. Is it correct then to say that Facebook members are exhibitionists and that privacy is not possible ?

The article by Professor Alvarez Monzoncillo, Uncertainties of Web 2.0 , was widely commented: more than 100 comments on the source of publication and participation in other portals, Twitter or this debate on the professional network Linkedin . I find that the article follows a fluid but inaccurate and tendentious thread: Web 3.0 is not yet developed, blogs are not monologues nor are they against websites, virtual communities do not exclude people. Those who are used to using the network can take a clear position by carefully reading the article and the comments in it or in other spaces . Those who are not used to it can form a rather erroneous opinion based on the information in the article.

I understand that it is unprofessional to write an article that shows a sensationalist bias, just as it is not good to generalize about human behavior in certain areas, as explained in the interview.