Stars in Your Lap: social networking and online video

There was a nice article in the Guardian magazine, last Saturday, entitled Stars in Your Lap, which focused upon the next generation of web based entrepreneurs. It looked at some of elements in social networking with a big focus on online video. There were two sections that stuck out for me.

1. Social networking: "Those who decry social networking as an exercise in hi-tech isolationism forget that the stereotype of the uncommunicative teen locked in their bedroom is nothing new. They imagine that, if it were not for Facebook and my space, people would be out windsurfing or reading Shakespeare, rather than staring at the TV. For the YouTube generation, the web is not a tool that helps and communicate more quickly - it is their native form of communication." Bingo.
2. Online video: "the video boom is similar to the growth of young British music, where artists such as the Arctic monkeys and Kate Nash are often seen as the products of my space. But these new TV stars are building their support out of the structure of the Internet itself. Things are still in flux, however, and even those who might be the TV stars of tomorrow don't know what tomorrow will look like." I love that phrase about emergent networks facilitated by the Web, rather than forcing networks onto new technologies. The argument is that this is not a mash up between TV and the Web, it does not necessarily take on the modalities of TV all the Web, but it is new and experimental.