The state of user generated digital content

A quick update on where shit is headed.

Web 2.0 has been around for a number of years now.

User generated content and social media is a bigger part of the Internet (for consumers), than any other type of site.

But where does that bring us?

Blogs

The numbers are ridiculous. More pop up every day, and even more die. With the rise of services such as posterous, tumblr and twitter, traditional post-a-week blogging is slowly grinding to a halt. The only blogs that people still read consistently have a loyal following established from days when the medium was hot.

Mini blogs

Twitter, tumblr, posterous etc.

Why write long-ass articles when you can share your thoughts a bit at a time. With mobile increasing it's reach as one of the main access devices for Internet, bite-sized blogging has definitely become the preferred method for the masses. Typical with gen-y, anything that's more convenient and takes less time is instantly better. Simply because we don't have time or attention span to cram everything into our schedules. I'm guilty of this myself, I don't have an inane desire for web-celeb, and if my friends want information or to stay connected to me, facebook and twitter are just fine.

But I must admit that this has severely reduced the quality of articles. Less space means less depth. No matter what you say. Please don't reference things like haikus being minimal yet engaging, you fucking hippies. Sometimes you need a bit of length. Just ask the ladies.

Web 3.0

Geolocation and augmented reality. Nothing new really, but we haven't seen any major use for these technologies yet. Foursquare aside that is, and even that's just a game with some promo gimmicks tacked on (just in the US for now).

So that's a quick update on the digital landscape.