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Delusion

No one really cares about what we do here.

If there is any lesson that you need to learn about the Internet that is it. Whether you are doing business, having debates, or starting feuds — it’s time to realize that out there in the real world, no one even notices.

On the Internet, Ron Paul is the third most popular candidate. On the Internet, Ubuntu is a meaningful word. On the Internet, AJAX is not an astringent. On the Internet, Kevin Rose is a celebrity. On the Internet, Robert Scoble is a bigger news icon than Dan Rather. On the Internet, Techcrunch holds more authority than the New York Times.

Do you see the problem?


What Real People Are Watching


What Real People Are Listening To

  1. Soulja Boy Tell’em | Crank That (Soulja Boy)

  2. Kanye West | Stronger

  3. Timbaland Featuring Keri Hilson | The Way I Are

  4. Fergie | Big Girls Don’t Cry

  5. J. Holiday | Bed

[Billboard]


Words That Are Meaningless To Real People

  1. Web 2.0

  2. Social Media

  3. Social Graph

  4. Digg

  5. Blogging


Words That Hold Some Vague Relevance To Real People

  1. YouTube

  3. MySpace

  4. Facebook

  5. Google (noun and verb)

  6. Microsoft


Real World Celebrity

Borat

  1. Sacha Baron Cohen

  2. Tzipi Livni

  3. Oprah Winfrey

  4. Al Gore

  5. Lakshmi Mittal

[Time 100]


Web 2.0 Roundup

The list goes on and on.

There is absolutely no way that you can hope to make products that real people will use, produce anything that scales to the mainstream, or even fully appreciate the wider uses of technology if you don’t understand that our tech bubble is a microcosm within a microcosm. Further, you might as well go ahead a realize that we have made out little world seem much more important than it actually is.

My challenge to you is to look at your next project from the standpoint of a “real” person. Get rid of all the crap that we sell to each other about the social media revolution, and try to produce something with real world value. Come back and think about what you have learned. If nothing else, maybe you won’t be so surprised next time that, “but it’s just like Pownce,” falls on deaf ears.

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