Web 2.0 celebratory claims faded into structural critiques

Evidence

When I started this project in July 2007, the economy was vastly different than it is now. Like the dot-com boom before it, Web 2.0 was hyped as a revolutionary schism with the past that would transform the world for the better. Those claims are heard less frequently today. People who spoke lovingly of a new age of participation and equality facilitated by Web 2.0 have begun to contribute to nuanced critiques of social software, critiques that involve visual culture analysis, the commercial contexts of user interaction, and larger cultural impacts. (Even Facebook’s IPO did not turn out to be as lucrative as promised.) This project was conceived as a response to a celebratory rhetoric that has, to a certain extent, diminished. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 47

Categorization

• XREF: Situates Marwick’s book as the foundational critical turn against the early-Web2.0 participation narrative, useful for the reader’s framing of creator culture’s historical arc. — connects to: Web 2.0’s openness ideals died while its self-promotion practices intensified — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 23; Early critics of Web 2.0 utopianism attacked internet-driven democratization and personalized filtering — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 787; The web kept its romantic aura long after real harms accumulated — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1091 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Web 2.0’s openness ideals died while its self-promotion practices intensified #exemplifies (0.92) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 23
• Early critics of Web 2.0 utopianism attacked internet-driven democratization and personalized filtering #corroborates (0.80) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 787