You Are The Time Person of the Year

The newly released edition of Time Magazine has named members of the online community as “Person of the Year” for 2006. The editorial team recognizes the unique impact of bloggers and participants in forums such as Wikipedia and YouTube.

Lev Grossman explains:

“Who are these people? Seriously, who actually sits down after a long day at work and says, I’m not going to watch Lost tonight. I’m going to turn on my computer and make a movie starring my pet iguana? I’m going to mash up 50 Cent’s vocals with Queen’s instrumentals? I’m going to blog about my state of mind or the state of the nation or the steak-frites at the new bistro down the street? Who has that time and that energy and that passion?

The answer is, you do. And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME’s Person of the Year for 2006 is you.”

The magazine on the shelves is featuring fifteen citizens of the ‘new digital democracy’, including a French rapper, a relentless reviewer and a real life lonely girl. There’s a story on the founders of YouTube, an essay on the connections between Web 2.0 and Andy Warhol, the rise of amateurs in new media, the capacity of digital cameras to change history, the second dot.com business boom, and an expose of the annoying downside of the internet.

I’m wondering how long it will take before Time really catches up on the global changes being brought about through the internet. Time continues to assume that its readers will be focused on what is happening within the borders of the United States. Blogging has taught me that while there are a lot of Americans online, the stories are often found elsewhere.

Darren Rowse at ProBlogger lightly suggests that the online Time Magazine article is a classic case of ‘linkbaiting’. Every time someone links to the article (like I have just done) Time zooms up in the online ratings. Fair enough.