The staying power of Web 2.0

As I have gotten more and more of the concept of Web 2.0, I have begun reading around the web for articles that address the topic. One article that I came across is from The Atlantic by Michael Hirschorn circa 2007. In this article, Mr. Hirschorn establishes that the "social media buzz" is going to come to an end and these sites will fade away just like all other hot/buzz-worthy things do. I know, I know it was 2007 and he probably had no idea of the Web 2.0 explosion that would happen. However, he does bring up some points that I think really justify the staying power of Web 2.0. The first thing that caught my attention is when he makes a comment about "just like in high school, where the cool kids go we will follow." This is such a true statement. Being a teacher in middle school I can tell you that all kids try to sit at the cool table. Mr. Hirschorn makes a valid point. We use the tools of the cool kids as adults. Think about who are the most followed people in the social media universe. These are the people we have deemed the "cool kids" and really because of them social media has hit even bigger highs. I hate to admit it but Kim Kardashian is a household name because of social media and in turn she has made her entire family "social media royalty". I mean really this woman had a meeting with the President of the United States!!! This proves how powerful the medium of social media and Web 2.0 is. The other thing brought up by Hirschorn is when he talks about people not being able to monetize their footprint in the social media world. He says that most of the social media interaction would lead you straight to a personal content ladled page where you could spend your money. Again, I know 2007..... however, it might have started that way but now we see several examples of how people can acquire personal wealth through social media mediums. One person I think about when this comes to mind is a guy named Matthew Cardona. You probably do not know his name I did not for a long time but because of Web 2.0 tools he has become a very popular character in World Wrestling Entertainment. He was originally signed to the WWE in 2007, funny same year as Hirschorn said there was not staying power, and had a lackluster career. In 2011 he got fed up with the way he was being used and marketed by WWE and he took it on himself to use Web 2.0 tools to market himself. He used the social media medium of youtube and began to market his character. Because of this risky calculation he ended up gaining a huge following which put him in many main event matches, championship opportunities and of course more money. He proved Hirschorn wrong by showing that you can gain monetary value from social media. He took a self-created gimmick and produced that for a social media audience and became very wealthy because of it. So, social media does have staying power for those two reasons. You always want to have a place at the cool kids table (Hirschon was right) and you can gain personal wealth because of what you produce on Web 2.0 tools.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/04/the-web-20-bubble/305687/