Time Magazine has chosen its person of the year, and it's me. That's what they said: "You." And that would be me.
First, I want to thank my mom and my kids and my little dog Abby, and all my readers and all the blogs that inspire me, and Google for making Blogger available at no cost...
Here's some of what Time has to say about their decision:
The "Great Man" theory of history is usually attributed to the Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle, who wrote that "the history of the world is but the biography of great men." He believed that it is the few, the powerful and the famous who shape our collective destiny as a species. That theory took a serious beating this year.
But look at 2006 through a different lens [than who to blame for the world's problems] 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.
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.
So there you have it.
Oh. And congratulations to you, too!
Update:
La Shawn Barber has a great post on Time's choice of Person of the Year.
4 comments:
"... and all the blogs that inspire me..."
That would be mine.
Have you met Ms. Barber?
Yes, I've met Ms. Barber, at GodBlogCon last year and again this year. She's a wonderful lady, warm and a little on the quiet side.
I tend to think of bloggers as "opinionated" and all the connotations that go with the word. But La Shawn's manner in person isn't about sharing her opinions. It's about getting to know people, and I appreciated that about her.
You were like that when I met you at Cracker Barrel. I expected Betsy Trotwood and was pleasantly surprised with Agnes Wickfield.
Hopefully I didn't come across as Uriah Heep.
You're a much gentler soul than your blogging suggests.
Chris,
You caught me: I may be well read, but not David Copperfield. I had to look up those names (did you know Wikipedia can be very helpful?).
No, you didn't come across as Uriah Heep. In fact, you were a lot like that very nice man in the picture with the ivory-skinned lovely smiling next to him.
Of course, now I'll be thinking about my blogging and whether it sounds like Betsy instead of Agnes. Do you suppose Agnes would have found amphibians (exploding or otherwise) funny?
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