As I was reading Andrew Keen’s book ,The Cult of the Amateur, I found the argument to be quite unconvincing and hypocritical. Keen, a British-American entrepreneur and author fond of arguing against the Web 2.0 movement, writes about how a democratizing Internet culture’s cultivation of amateurs is ruining our true, well-educated culture. What I don’t understand is how he considers the media-based, Hollywood-run culture to be “well-educated” and true. From my point of view, I consider the Hollywood culture a much more deleterious and scandalized culture than I do the Internet. From young girls and preteens fantasizing of becoming grown-up versions of Miley Cyrus to news programs such as Fox News sensationalizing and brainwashing their viewers, the media itself is no less an amateur culture than the net. He claims that blogs and websites such as Wikipedia are full of false ideas and are run by uneducated, unprofessional people who have no life. I am really opposed to this idea of “educated.” I don’t believe that a person cannot be intelligent or professional just because they don’t have college degrees. In fact the people that have drastically changed the world of technology are drop-outs themselves. Just think of Albert Einstein and, recently, of Steve Jobs. These two figures, although from modern standards are considered uneducated, have done a lot more for the world than most “educated” people have. Keen also interviewed Walter Isaacson, Steve Job’s biographer and rather than debating the use of the Internet and Apple’s new technologies, he was stuck on talking about Steve Jobs as a person. I feel he does the same in his book where he constantly slanders the “uneducated” people behind the Internet rather than discuss what the issue really is.

I believe that to some extent both the Internet and media cultures are ruinous. But I also consider that both can play a positive role in culture too. I agree with Keen that there are many substance-less blogs and useless YouTube videos. But on the other end, there are also many informative and helpful blogs and videos.The same can be said about the media as well. I guess having a good balance between Lessig’s “Read Only” and “Read/Write” cultures is key to a successful harmony.