Web 2.0 has three distinguishing features: it is easy to use; it facilitates the social element; and users can upload their own content in whatever form, be it pictures, videos or text. In this text, I discuss three recent trends in internet culture: the colonisation of real-time, comment culture and the rise of extreme opinions, and the emergence of national webs.
Geert Lovink is an assistant professor at the University of Amsterdam. He is also the director of the Institute of Network Cultures and a media theorist. In 2004, he was appointed research professor at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam (interactive media) and associate professor (new media) at the University of Amsterdam. Lovink holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne. In 2003, he was a postdoc fellow at the University of Queensland in Brisbane.