It seems like the Internet might finally be growing up and, dare I say it, getting dull.
From those early days of Usenet and Compuserve, it’s first words “hello world”, the Internet developed quickly in size and speed.
It went through the kind of teenage years so many experience; self doubt, porn and piracy (so just me then?).
Those rebellious teenage years of mix tapes mass-produced on Sanyo Tape-to-tape machines, illicit magazines, trying to work out who you are and what you want to be when you grow-up. The Internet has been through it all.
But things suddenly seem to be getting very serious and grown-up.
The Digital Economy Act is riding to the rescue of copyright holders, the first of the major paywalls has arrived at News International, Facebook keeps getting banned over pictures of religious characters and in South Africa they are even looking at banning all adult content online.
Even the carefree days of handing over data for “free” services seems to be coming to and end with “quit Facebook” days and far too much emotional energy invested in arguing about privacy settings.
Now each of these events is worthy of the thousands of serious editorial comment and blog posts covering every angle in forensic detail, exploring in depth the fundamental affect they may or may not have on the way consumers, businesses and brands use the Internet and how business models will evolve. But to me something much more fundamental is happening. The grown-ups are taking over.
When I first started working online no one had a clue what I did. Back in the last century people in expensive suits nodded sincerely as I wondered why they were taking a twenty-something who clearly knew nothing so seriously. Then I realised, it was because they knew even less.
But time has moved on. Now everyone claims to be a “social media guru” (what happened to all those viral marketing gurus?). Those people in suits are now the same age as me. They have leaned the lessons of 2001 and they have started to try and tame the Internet, to control it, to monetise it, to bend it to their will.
So is this the beginning of the end? Not a chance. If there’s one thing I have learned, the Internet is like a Hydra. Cut off its head and two more will grow, each brimming full of new, innovative and independent ideas.
So those rebellious teenage years might be over, but the midlife crisis is just around the corner and it’s bound to be fun.
