The Hive Mind is stupid and boring

I just read an interesting article that addresses many of the concerns with things like Wikipedia, MySpace, and other "social networking" technologies. These technologies are great insofar as you can get some interesting things out of them, but they are not, in my opinion, the answer to everything. More interactivity never hurt, but as the author points out, it's the connections between people that matter, not the interactivity and "connectedness" and "meta" in and of itself. Maybe these technologies are trumpeted because anything these days that brings more freedom to an increasingly locked-down online world is seen as crucially important. I know, I know, it's long and nerdy, but I highly recommend reading it. As they say, none of us is as dumb as all of us.