Imagine if the Internet was just websites about web browsers. And for the purposes of this post assume that all you can do with a web browser is surf the internet. The internet would be completely useless. You could use to get all the details on all of the different browsers. Which you could supposedly then download and try. And if you made the switch you could view all of the content about all of the different browsers slightly differently. So the whole internet would be about the possibility of changing the way you view information which is all about changing the way you view the information. It is cyclic.

It’s like having a colour changer that just changes the colour of the colour changer. It’s like using an iPod just to listen to podcasts about the next iPod. Or like buying a Mac and just using it to talk on MacRumors about the next Mac. It’s like having a forum where you can only post about updates to that forum’s software. Or having a blog that you just use to detail the changes you are making to the layout of the posts. It’s like just having TV programmes about winning TV sets. It is pointless.

The key word in this post is “just”. If you have browser sites, and other sites then the internet is useful, and so are the browser sites. Similarly with the other examples. If you listen to more podcasts than those about iPods, then suddenly the technology has been useful. But at the moment it seems a lot of new media is about new media. I can get a lot more podcasts that continually talk about podcasting than I can about any other subject. The best example I have ever seen of this is the Tom Green show. Where they are producing a live Internet TV show, but all they ever talk about is how great it is that they can do this live TV show. And how groundbreaking it is.

I am not saying these new strands of media are not going anywhere. I am just asking you to be careful with the amount of meta you broadcast. For this reason, this post needs to be kept short. About this long is ideal.