No this isn’t a 45 year old husband and father of two writing a review of Justin Bieber and it certainly is not a slam on the wildly successful young man. I actually have very little opinion on “The Bieb” one way or the other but some of the press he has gotten lately does serve as an example of how modern media trends are slipping away from people who really should know better.

A snippet from my hometown Montreal Gazette illustrates this point as they ask the question “Has Justin Bieber bubble burst?”(sic). Aside from the obvious grammatical failings in that headline of a major English language newspaper, they really do miss the point. The question is posed based on the fact that Justin’s recent appearance on the cover of Vanity Fair has proven to be one of the worst selling editions of the magazine.

Unfortunately Bieber’s popularity, or alleged lack-there-of, can be about as accurately gauged in this manner as the results of a Tracy Morgan spread in Pride weekly. The Author does get some redemption by mentioning that “13-yearold girls can’t afford the $12.95″. Again you have to pretend that ‘yearold’ is a word but, more importantly, it’s not so much that the tween set “can’t” buy the magazine but more along the lines of “why would they?” You can read the whole bit right here (have they caught the typo’s by now?)

The point I am making is that Bieber’s demographic is on the cutting edge of modern communication. Anything of value that might be contained in that article has already been tweeted, Facebooked, YouTubed, or Google+’ed around the globe three times by the time it hit the newsstands. I would imagine that about the same amount of Bieber fans would have picked it up if it were free. Don’t question the power of the Bieb just because you don’t understand his language. Especially when his manner of communication is actually relevant and your print newspaper is poised to become the next Latin. Did I mention I read the on-line version of the paper as opposed to flying 5000 km to pick one up? Read more…

So the latest buzz about “The Book” is that it has been valued at 70 Billion dollars. I just got through about 2/3 of a thread (which I will NOT link to), on a popular SM site, of people bitching and complaining about Facebook. People are predicting it to crash like the dot coms and point out the death (almost) of MySpace, and it’s present value, as what the future holds for Facebook. Frankly I’m surprised that these people have time to post about the crash of Facebook. Surely they have all liquidated their assets to get ready to short the stock so should they not be off decorating Yachts and previewing private islands?

I’m not here to discuss whether or not something like Facebook is overvalued as I don’t pretend to understand the inner workings of IPO’s and how these types of valuations are made but I have a hard time seeing how something as revolutionary as Facebook could not be worth such an obscene figure. With ad revenues alone of $2B and projected to come close to doubling during the worst economic times of almost three generations doesn’t that almost justify the figure? Then there is the magic to Facebook that anyone who uses it understands and the question about what that is worth. How do you put a price on the type of impact that Facebook has? How do you say that it’s NOT worth $70 billion? That’s just how I view it. One admittedly ignorant opinion.

What I do want to comment on, what I am fascinated by, is yet another round of whining, complaining, bitching and nagging on, and about, Facebook. This time over what OTHER PEOPLE have valued it at. Facebook whining is not new but it seems to get stronger and stronger the further removed we get from a time when it would have seemed like magic to have old friends be able to contact you out of the blue (while still holding the power as whether to engage them or not). It was eons ago when we asked “so I can store all of my pictures and video on there? What does it cost?” or “Imagine if there was a place where I could promote my event, business, or just my opinion in front of the whole world for absolutely free? Wow, would that ever be cool!”. How innocent, blissful and naive we were back in that long forgotten era of what… 2007?

But not today. Today we take our free pony ride and complain about the worn saddle. Today we are the homeless man sending back the steak at the shelter because it is overcooked. Today it seems we have lost all accountability to be appreciative of something that we take so much from without having to cough up a penny. We smile graciously at the host as he invites us into his home, then stab him in the back when he turns to get back to the business of finding more ways to entertain ourselves upon our next visit. So what if he happens to be a Bazillionaire ? He got that money by creating something that hundreds of millions of people  are compelled to look at every day. He monetizes it not by charging us for our obsession, but by charging the people who wish to get their products in front of us. I can’t walk down the street, turn on the TV, surf 90% of the internett, or even go to a sporting event without other mediums doing the exact same thing so how is this different? Why the wrath? Why the whining and moaning? Read more…