everybody has an e-book

I must be in the wrong business. Instead of trying to make money on the web, I should be making money off of other people trying to make money on the web. Everybody is doing it, so why not me? Maybe I should write an e-book. Follow the formula, write a hard-sell website with fifty pages worth of text crammed into one page full of alternating font styles, sizes and colors.

I'll admit that some of them are legitimate, and actually involve some research and include unique content and advice. However, most appear to be transparently superficial, and merely regurgitate in their own words what others have already said (for free) on their websites. Then, they simply turn around and create an affiliate program so that others can sell it for them.

*Dangle a carrot in their face, and they will help make you money.*

I am slowly developing a love/hate relationship with the internet. On one hand, I depend on it for my income, but on the other hand I can't stand how plastic and inhuman everything has become. Frightening, isn't it? You would think that the "social" aspect of Web 2.0 would have breathed some life into the web, but aside from the occasional heartfelt video-blog (which hopefully isn't actually part of a "reality" show masquerading as reality), I'm just not seeing it.

Web users wanted a more personal experience, so we turned them into a target market. We gave them watered down "social" interfaces, slapped a design formula for shiny buttons and reflective surfaces onto it, gave it an overzealous moniker (or maybe a made-up word), and whoila! - instant Web 2.0. It's not all that different from track home builders adding "cottagy" touches to their huge homes to appeal to home buyers looking for something "old world". Forget the fact that few cottages ever built in the "old world" had more than 1200 square feet of living area, or that a big part of the attractiveness of cottage-like homes is their one-of-a-kind character, or that the color palette of original cottages included more than just three versions of beige.

The internet is no different - it offers glamorized cookie-cutter faux-life approaches to solving real-life problems, few of which have a lasting impression. The fact that we had to apply a number to it - "2.0" - indicates that it will be reinvented ad nauseum each year or so, to try and keep web users from growing tired of its facade, and keep upgrading their computers and software.