100 Channels and there is nothing on

I have been wondering for a while about my lack of desire on some days to 'surf' the web in that 1999 style of old. Googling random topics to see where I go. Spending hours looking at random sites in fascination.

All that has gone, and I think I have worked out why.

You remember having 4/5 tv channels, you always found something to watch. Then multi channel tv came along, and it was a realm of choice, every possible subject and whim catered for through the wonders of satellite technology.

Then we got settled, then we chose favourites, then we flicked... we flicked some more... then we never stopped flicking. Our standards became so high that suddenly that half interesting documentary or obscure Indian film became wastage instead of the only thing on. We said 'there's nothing on!' even though there clearly was lots of things on.

Well that's what is happening to the net. Facebook, twitter, blip, blogger, your news site... thats it. You are done. No time left to random surf, and even then you do it on wikipedia.

iGoogle makes it worse, you don't even need to go looking for stuff. It's all right there.

Web 2.0 has become multi channel tv. Suffering from our RSS favourite comfort zones.

Wiki'd. I Can't Believe I Typed That...

I'm making a stand that every planner has to wikichain at least once a week.

You know, that time killing device whereby you go to Wikipedia to look at Virgin Atlantic and somehow 3 hours later find yourself reading about Erasure. [ Something like, you followed a link of "aircraft", then from there you clicked "flying picket", then the band "flying pickets, then "only you", then Yazoo, then "Vince Clarke", then "Erasure".]

The big thing for me is, that not only is a great teacher of how things tie together, but it serves a more fundamental purpose being able to see objects and events as a whole; which makes it easier to see how objects have a meaning for people, how they are relevant in their lives, and sometimes how companies completely miss the point.

Everyone do something for me. Go to Wikipedia. Start on the article "advertising", then click on a link within that article. 10 articles later tell me where you end up. Thanks :)