Tuesday, December 19, 2006

You-phemism Of The Year


Time magazine has named You as their Person Of The Year. And by 'You', they mean 'Us' - bloggers, podcasters, Youtubers, MMRPGers, SecondLifers, commenters, boodlers, lurkers, and anyone else with an online life no matter how desperate or lame our 'real' life is.

I'm sure this pick by Time staffers was hardly younanimous. The criteria for POTY is the person that has the most impact, for good or bad, on the news. They have increasingly relied on abstractions instead of actual people. Past winners have included Whistleblowers, American Soldiers, and Peacemakers, as well as inanimate objects like The Computer or Planet Earth.

Time has been shying away from picking ostensibly evil people out of fear of bumming people out. Who really believes that Rudy Guilliani had more impact in 2001 than Osama bin Laden? When pressed they do go with evil. Ayatollah Khomeini made the cut in 1979 and Dubya has been named twice.

My fellow boodler, bc, has already accepted this honor on behalf of himself, me, and you, but I feel youniquely qualified to represent the spirit of the honor. In addition to the blog you are reading now, I have accounts with Flickr, YouTube, GoogleVideo, LiveJournal, MySpace, Xanga, and Frappr, making my online presence nearly youbiquitous. I am youphoric over the honor Time has accorded me and feel that the internet is youniting the world in unyousually youniversal youphony.

Blatant Comment Whoring™: Enough about me, how do You feel about your award?

8 comments:

trusty getto said...

Can I put this on my professional CV?

Anonymous said...

Honored, of course!

I'm not sure what to think, actually. I don't think I'm the blogger they have in mind. But, hey, I'll take it. ;)

Jeff and Charli Lee said...

I thought it was a lame cop-out on Time's part. Yes, choosing a specific POTY IS a difficult challenge - there's no question about it. But if you're not up for it, don't do it!

Anonymous said...

Does it come with a cash prize? No? Well bugger that then.

I agree that it's a cop out. Doing a feature article about how bloggers have changed the "information age" is one thing, but POTY? No way dude.

Anonymous said...

You the you!!!

Yes, definitely a cop out. They should stop having a POTY if they can't commit to an individual.

Anonymous said...

I'm thrilled, honored and humbled.
-Liz
:o)

yellojkt said...

tg,
It's going on my next resume.

I'm just wondering where we all go to pick up the trophy.

Anonymous said...

They love me! They really love me!