MikePadgett.com

Only on the Internet

— Some things just wouldn't work offline would they?…”

Some things just wouldn’t work offline, would they?

Wikipedia would be no different to the Encyclopedia Britannica (actually without the key differentiator of connectivity, Wikipedia would have little going for it, if Britannica is to be believed).

Or why not imagine a Faceparty where you’re the only guest? MySpace where yours is the only profile, yours the only lonely mug pasted up, you the only one up there dressed in your finest Sir Philip Green, gormless and doped up on fast food.

If we didn’t have the Internet, we’d be stuck with television repeats of You’ve Been Framed or Tarrant on TV instead of glorious, cut-out-the-anchorman Google Video or YouTube (is that really Steve Ballmer?)

Should we breathe a sigh relief and admit that we can’t live without the Internet, just as we could never go back to a world without mobile phones, then? On the one hand, the Internet is more banal than telly, perfect for the 21st century attention span. On the other it still threatens, like a glimpse of sunshine in a dirty grey sky, to be a great leveller.

BP post Groom: never the same?

Talking of TV, people often laugh when I tell them I don’t own one. Once more for the kiddies, it’s because J and I really don’t need the advertising and we don’t do small talk at work. However, I must admit that I still have a fond recall for old shows and for the zenith of Internet-only ideas, this one’s a beauty: nichy, gauche but ultimately fascinating.

The gold medal goes to JumpTheShark.com, a repository of the moments when great TV shows started to go downhill. Everything from The A-Team (when the guys were no longer on the run) to Zorro (when they swapped the trusty black steed for a white one).

Absolutely riveting. For five minutes.