Slashdot Mirror
Time Magazine Person of the Year — It's You
Thib writes to point out that Time Magazine has picked you — or us, or the Internet — as Person of the Year because you control the Information Age. From the article: "But look at 2006 through a different lens and you'll see another story, one that isn't about conflict or great men. It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes."
How are you, gentlemen?
How could Time pick such a self-absorbed, idiotic loser as Person of the Year?
They should have spelled it "YUO". That would have been funny.
In truth it's Time acknowledging we are a narcacistic society.
Inanimate carbon rod.
The world is really going to pot isn't it?
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Let me be the first to say how lame Time was picking this, when Salon made a much more interesting pick.
This post was generated by a Cadre of Uber Monkeys for Monkey-Man2000 (603495).
My resume will now say "Time Person Of The Year 2006"
They passed on naming Osama bin Laden in 2001. The original intent was to name the person with the greatest impact. In 1938 Hitler was Man of the Year; in 1939 it was Stalin, just because the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact gave Hitler breathing room to invade the rest of Europe.
In 2001 bin Laden was obviously the personage with the most impact, but people have come to see Person of the Year as laudatory, so now Time is constrained to pick popular figures rather than infamous ones, even if it's the infamous who mattered more.
Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
Even ignoring that we are a collective and not a person this is kind of corny. It's awesome they're recognizing the trend towards internet communities of individuals working together for the common good but I can't help thinking that this is a cheesy publicity stunt to increase subscriptions.
Haiku for you!
.... We need to come up with an acceptance speech?
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
Must have been a pretty slow year!
http://www.snpp.com/episodes/3F07.html
And here I was, thinking they were going to pick everyone else!
Oh happy day.
It comes with a prize right? It has to come with a prize. What? It doesn't??? Lame. Give it to someone else then.
It seems like person of the year is some kind of endorsement these days. They used to just give it to whoever was the most important person of that year or changed the world the most. In the past this has included people who changed the course of world history like Stalin and Hitler. These days they would never put someone like that up as their person of the year. They seem to be focused on picking a choice which is either feel good patriotic (like the president if it happens to be a year when his approval rating is high) or gimicky (like this) in the past decade or so. It is a great example of how journalists in our society are paranoid of saying anything that could be taken as an endorsment of terrorists or any other axis of evil folks these days.
will be so proud.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
In an age where, even when we behave innocently, we have to worry about the RIAA & MPAA serving us search warrants and the Big Brother in D.C. throwing us in prison, this is a load of crap.
Run and catch, run and catch, the lamb is caught in the blackberry patch.
Soylent Green^W^WThe internet is people!
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
We are indeed (painting with a very broad brush here) a bunch of self-absorbed, self-impressed, whining, coddled assholes. But I seriously doubt Time's ability to recognize this, let alone give it public acknowlegement while asking these self same assholes to buy their rag (and a rag it is).
By the way, there is nothing wrong with navel-gazing, as long as you realize answers are almost never found there.
The most surprising thing was how smoothly the photo shoot went.
You never know if you is singular or plural. At least down south they have Ya'll, and locally where I live it's Yinz.
God spoke to me.
... aimed at a narcissistic society.
And it will work. This issue will be one of the biggest sellers ever.
Why did they pick internet culture (basicly what they are saying) as the person of the year?
Where there no great people this year? Did no one do anything that really stood out (or a series of events)?
Personaly I think that is true. We have no heros at the moment. There are no more (for the moment) world famus individuals that shape how we act/view the world. All we have are big names that the world looks at and wory about.
My realization on this came a few weeks ago when listening to some random news in the morning (NPR), and hearing a report reffer to Bush as "Mr. Bush" repeatedly. It sorta stuck in my head, it was the only time I can remember a reporter calling a sitting prez "Mr. *****" instead of "President *****", even when they were from the opposite side of the political fence (Fox to a dem, NPR to a Repub, etc).
As for picking internet culture instead?
Meh.
It hasn't changed much since last year. Bogs, web 2.0, what ever you wana focus on was all just as active last year as it was this year.
Do Or Do Not, There Is No Spoon, There Is Only Zuul. Everything in the above post is probably opinion.
No individual recognition. Less money than a nobel. Lame.
There is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men. -- Boondock Saints
An anachronistic publication chooses a "man of the year" and we're supposed to care?
In other news, the Communist Party has named Fidel Castro it's man of the year again, just beating out Hugo Chavez. Slashdot names CmdrTaco man of the year. Microsoft names Major Nelson man of the year. I think the NY Times is going to make "the international terrorist" their person of the year. And international terrorists are going to name "the NY Times reporter" their person of the year, just beating out "the Associated Press reporter" despite the AP's recent efforts to catch up.
I'm nominating myself for my own Kohath man of the year award this year. I think I might win.
This is the end
...again
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I'll never look into your eyes
twang...twang...twang...
Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
You know what you doing
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
I give more of my wealth, so finally the recognition I deserve!
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
Looks to me like it's just time magazine acknowledging how completely irrelevant they are. Too bad they can only pull this lame copout once.
2006 called it wants its article back
Don't forget the other 52% of the population!
I just read
Time magazine has been losing readership. Many more people turn to the web for news. I think the impact of the mass of humanity on the web is something Time as a magazine feels threatened by. I think that influenced their decision and made an already pointless award from a lost magazine even more so. "New Design and Ad Rate Set for Time Magazine" http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/10/business/media/1 0mag.html?ex=1320814800&en=ffbe981c48995c90&ei=508 8&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
The only reason that Time is acknowleding You now is because large corporations (not You, but Google, et alii) are finally starting to catch on and investing billions to capture the attention of You. Individuals have been outflanking the Media for years now, whether it was the much-despised Matt Drudge, or bloggers debunking forged documents that were done in Word, not on a typewriter.
So, thank you Time, you flatter Me, though perhaps a bit disingenuously. The only reason I see that you acknowledge Me now is that you have finally come to the conclusion that you can no longer ignore Me. Perhaps by buying Me, you may once again control Me.
If they were looking for who had the greatest impact this year I'd have to at least nominate the collective of spammers. They affected us more than the members of MySpace and Wikipedia and other sites. You have to go to Wikipedia for it to have an affect on you -- but spammers come to you, and come to you, and come to you. And it's not just that they fill your mailbox with total crap, but they misspell it all to boot. How many penises do we have to enlarge before they have nothing else to sell? Could we just give them our passwords so they could quite phishing for them? What does it take?
I just read
George W is going to read this.
thegodmovie.com - watch it
Shouldn't the Person of the Year be "u"? ur teh person of teh yr!
Monstar L
So much for this ad.
But, I wanted socialized health insurance!
But when they followed it with this
I thought "They're comparing Einstien to 50 cent ?!"
Then the true brilliance, of working together, hit me, or maybe it was a bullet grazing my head for talkin smack about 50, I'm not sure.
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
offtopic? did i offend an atheist? OK, happy festive secular holiday.
from: http://www.scrappleface.com/?p=2434
Kerry Humbled to Be Named Time's 'Person of the Year'
by Scott Ott
(2006-12-17) -- Sen. John Kerry, D-MA, today announced he is "humbled and grateful" to be named Time Magazine's 'Person of the Year' for 2006.
"When I picked up my copy of Time at the newsstand," said Sen. Kerry, "and saw my own image looking back at me, I thought 'Of all the great people in the world this year -- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Kofi Annan, Kim Jong-Il -- how can it be you, John?'"
The presumptive runner-up for the Democrat presidential nomination in 2008 said he had not yet read the Time cover story because "modesty restrains me."
"And yet," Sen. Kerry added, "in a way, my whole life has been moving toward this moment when the people of this nation and their leaders would say, 'You're the one, John'. There's a sense of destiny, and you can't fight that."
In related news, spokesmen for Sen. Hillary Clinton and former Sen. John Edwards said both would appear at separate news conferences later today to reflect on their feelings after being named Time magazine's 'Person of the Year' for 2006.
This pick is certainly more appealing than next year's pick: The Machines.
2*31*37*263
In Soviet Russia, the Internets choose YOU.
It's nice to see community achievements getting some positive recognition; especially when contrasted with the spectacle of the forces of evil, who oppose freedom, being panned in the press and in court ;-) It's a good end to the year!
Who would have thought it; we're not just a bunch of commie anti-capitalists and foil-hat wearing conspiracy theorists...
Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
omg that's brilliant! the way you quoted zero wing! woah!
What a dumb, hype-driven decision. The many wresting power from the few? Not even. Youtube and Myspace are controlled by big corporations who retain full power to delete or change any content as they wish. Wikipedia articles are maintained mostly by a small percentage of users. Users "control" the information age only about as much as the people who bought cars or shoes or soda controlled to manufacturing age. Youtube users are the new Pepsi generation, big woop.
You like me! You really like me!
People don't seem to agree that we should be person of the year. It disappoints me that no one is suggesting an alternative. Who would you pick?
Donald Rumsfeld? Al Gore? Kim Jong-il?
Discuss.
There is even a reflective cover so that you can see yourself in the magazine, so there's really only one question to ask:
Are you a Lebowski achiever?
English is easier said than done.
Is it just me, or are the folks at Time getting lazy?
Quite a bit of assembly required, actually....
I for one would like to welcome myself as our new digital overloard.
Table-ized A.I.
offtopic? did i offend an atheist? OK, happy festive secular holiday.
We athiests gather 'round to sing "Silent Night, Rational Night", and drink eggnog around the Shiney Nicknack Tree as we ponder why we never get laid.
Table-ized A.I.
Web 2.0 gives people the illusion they have power. It's a more effective tool for persuading people they're happy than the TV ever did. Time magazine makes a useful idiot.
You like we! You really like we!
[100% ISO 646 Compliant]
SVM, ERGO MONSTRO.
The paragon of self-aggrandizement of the baby-boomer generation is now complete.
I went to fire off a scathing verbal smackdown to the editors of Time for their cowardly, pathetic, and spineless non-choice for Person of the Year, and my email got bounced back because their mailbox was full. Somehow, I doubt it's clogged with messages of praise. Speaks volumes about Time's true comprehension of the vast digital "you" that they couldn't deal with the email their imbecilic choice provoked.
Next year I'm pulling for the Inanimate Carbon Rod to win.
Oppressing an entire population is never cheap.
--Jeckler (/. Beta IS GARBAGE!)
They used to just give it to whoever was the most important person of that year or changed the world the most. In the past this has included people who changed the course of world history like Stalin and Hitler. These days they would never put someone like that up as their person of the year. They seem to be focused on picking a choice which is either feel good patriotic (like the president if it happens to be a year when his approval rating is high) or gimicky (like this) in the past decade or so. I
We saw this quite clearly in 1999/2000 when Time chose its "Person of the Century" -- not Hitler, Stalin, or Mao, but Albert Einstein. That issue then included a two-page essay full of incoherent waffling about why they didn't pick Hitler, Stalin, or Mao. But if you establish the basis of the award as "the individual who had the greatest influence on history, for good or ill," there's no rational way to exclude the world-class jerks.
"...as Person of the Year because you control the Information Age."
But the people who "control the Information Age" voted Hugo Chavez as person of the year on Time Magazine's online poll.
Of course, Chavez is a socialist working to empower Venezuela's poor -- a politically incorrect position for AOL-Time Warner's corporate management.
So much for the people of the Internet controlling the Information Age -- corporate America is firmly in control.
... is that none of those people you named, nor the person above, had ANY IMPACT ON THE WORLD AT ALL outside the U.S.
Low-level American Politics doesn't affect the whole world.
... some recognition. Pick for next year: An Inanimate Carbon Rod
Good God. I just checked out the latest cover of Time, and they put this fat ugly guy on there. Totally grossed me out.
09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
My budgie is now person of the year!
I swear I thought you were going to say the question people are going to ask themselves is:
"You talkin' to me?"
-metric
TIME Magazine names "Person of the Year": Not You
I've been using the Internet for how many years and only now get recognized? Sure took them long enough.
In social terms, the individual has always been in control of everything in society. A lot of people are not fully aware of this because it requires a prespective that is rarely generally taught in society (probably because it has its dangers), but generally speaking anything can be changed if individuals just decided it. Of course, they wouldn't all coordinate their behavior by default, so making large scale changes requires massive organization. This phenomenon was primarily taken advantage of and served as the basis for establishing workers movements (such as socialist revolutions) back in the day. That kind of history proves that they knew about this even back then, so Time has not hit on anything new really.
The internet is a fancy new technology that seems novel and unusual to a lot of people, but I think from a sociological perspective this is business as usual. Hardly anything noteworthy...
Anybody but AchtungNaziBob!
Karma: Bad is the liberal way of saying this guy won't drink the kool aid here on slash dot. I wear my Karma with pride
How are you gentlemen? You have no chance to survive make your time.
You can make the cover of Time Magazine just by downloading lots of pr0n!
Sweet!
That's what I was gonna post when I first saw the title...
Staring at a white background [on a computer screen] while you read is like staring at a light bulb — Maddox
Cool!
There are people saying that the choice was selfish and individualistic (I'm sure there's a better word than that for it, but you know what I mean). I don't agree.
Admittedly, Time Magazine should've said the person of the year is "Everyone", not "You", because it would've conveyed their idea much better.
Time Magazine are saying that people behaving communally is what makes us special this year. They're not saying the individual is special, but the community, made up of individuals sharing knowledge and experience.
Beautiful sentiment, but they could've picked a better word than "You".
This is not news for nerds. This certainly does not matter.
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
welcome ourselves as overlords!
Time should have taken a page out of Slashdot's book and named their POTY "the anonymous coward". If they had, they could have discussed the nature of anonymous discourse on the internet (and talk radio) [the freedom to take a more radical position than you would talking face-to-face with people since your neighbors can't be sure it's you]. From there they could discuss Coulter, Colbert & Stewart, S. R. Sidarth, MSM vs. journalistic blogs, etc.
I'd rather be preterite
mod moderator +1 funny in a "I'm laughing at you, not with you" kinda way
I wonder if i can filter out all slashdot stories with
Slownewsday or lame tags.
bit it is a stretch.... Bloggers breaking news stories and people using the internet to gather and distribute information in politics has planted the seeds that grew into the great change that recently happened in Washington.
Firesign Theatre predicted this literally decades ago with their introduction of "You TV: TV for You the Viewer." And what do we have now? YouTube. Now where's that Howl of the Wolf movie with Porgie Tirebiter starring High School Madness?
Navel gazers all the way, I tell you.
--Joe
(Now how did Commie Martyr make off w/ Morse Science High, anyway?)
Program Intellivision!
Time has had George Bush as the Person of the Year. Not to mention Hitler and Stalin. I don't really care _who_ they put as the Person of the Year now.
Don't bother. Ran for govenor of California didn't do much for my resume.
They didn't want to publish the interview with Ahmadinjead, because it will reveal the lies about him. They were also concerned weather selecting him as the man of the year may let people(YOU) know him better, and read his letter to US people. Anyway, you can read hist letter in his personal weblog.
..with a mirror on the front page.
...the person of the year is TIME!
From the article:
This is exactly what people like Lawrence Lessig ( Free Culture ) and Yochai Benkler ( The Wealth of Networks ) have been saying all the time.
The magic and fascinating thing about the Internet isn't that it makes it more convenient to purchase pre-packaged content from big media corporations (although that is good too), but that it makes new forms of cooperation between people possible, on a scale never seen before.
The examples used by Benkler in The Wealth of Networks include the ones listed in the article, but he also mentions Slashdot as another example of the same phenomenon.
So, yes, I do feel that we all have reason to feel just a tiny bit proud about having received this award. The award has gone to the internet culture that we have all taken part in fostering and promoting, and it is great to see that being recognized by the mainstream media in this way.
Christian Engström, Former Member of the European Parliament 2009-2014 for The Pirate Party, Sweden
In 1938 Hitler was Man of the Year
So... Does that mean that Time has lost the argument (which argument anyway?) for comparing all internet users to Hitler?
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
... Time Magazine Person of the Year is YOU!
Is Time magazine available in Russia? And was it so in the days before perestroika?
It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
If you took care to read the article you'd learn that TIME's person chosen for the year 2006 is the iranian president. TIME Magazine however, simply lacked the courage to make him front page. This was the case also back in 2001, when TIME was blackmailed by politicians and revoced the placement of Sheik Osama bin Laden (shall Allah grow his beard longer) from the from page.
There is no freedom of speech in the west, all newspapers are cowards and are censored by the rich and powerful. American public consists of sheeps brainwashed by christian ultra-conservatives and the even worse.
So it turns out that life does stop and start at my convenience...
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
According to Time Magazine.
With a little effort, we could make 'narcacistic' completely cromulent.
Read the best of all of Slash: seenonslash.com
Did you also know that Time has released their "Sexiest Person of 2006" issue?
And what do you know?!??! We all won again!
Take that 8th grade chick who declined my invitation to the Snowflake Festival!!
... and I thought that having "The Computer" as the person of the year back in '82 was bad...
Vi havas e-poston.
On the bright side though, it makes buying Christmas presents this year so much easier...
A Person of the Year is YOU.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
Rats--blew my math in my other reply. Do I have to turn in my geek learner's permit?
Okay. Three significant digits. 3050 million:3010 million. 305:301.
Okay, so that is approx. 1:1. And yet, there are almost 40 million more males...
There is a fine line between recklessness and courage... -- Paul McCartney
If you read the article at Time.com there are no social collaboration opportunities.
This reminds me of award ceremonies for staff and professional organizations where lots of meaningless awards are distributed. Stupid awards devalue true excellence and accomplishment.
I personally think all the dead people should get the person of the year award. Had it not been for things they did, there would be no internet, no highways, no scientific achievement, or even any human race. That deserves some recognition.