The Real "Person of the Year"

I don't know about you, but this time I think Time Magazine is reaching for it's "Person of the Year". God knows, I wouldn't be the one to take anything away from the Internet or the mobile world we are increasingly living in. The "revolution" Time credits is, well -- old news. If they didn't want to name the now wealthy, wet-behind-the-ears YouTube founders, that's fine. But naming "You" as the "Person of the Year" is a cop out. If -- and I say if because Time editors are more qualified to narrow down their candidates for this honor -- they had to have an Internet-based "Person of the Year", they're missing the point. My candidate for "Person of the Year" would be Generation Y specifically. Gen Y is the group that didn't just discover or inherit the Internet. They made it work and now they are helping it make money. When a young man can turn down $1 billion for Facebook you've got the real story. What's more, Gen Y enabled the Internet and helped set up what is coming next -- the mobile future. Anyone can use the Internet. But this generation used it to totally tear down the "Berlin Wall" of traditional media and has opened the way for free music downloads, new business relationships, new social networking and stands to redefine just about every institution -- media or otherwise -- by Internet, mobile standards. I vote for Gen Y as the "Persons of the Year".