"Social News" Sites Make Headlines

A story about Digg.com's rising popularity (see link below), culled from Fortune magazine, was the top "Recently Popular" story on Digg this morning. Which, if users hadn't rated the story that high, would seem an act of shameless self-promotion.

Instead, it demonstrates the wonder and revelation of "social news" sites: People are smart, people care, and people will spend time on the Internet sharing more than just their drunken-weekend stories and photos. It's true—there's more happening on Earth than that party this weekend.

I'm admittedly a social-site newbie, and won't dare to call myself educated on matters of socio-technology, but I'll say this: the trend reported in this story seems to be a good sign for the future of our society. Call me old-fashioned.

UGC that's good for the business, for the users, and for the total potential audience. Not just in terms of dollars, but also sense. Wow.

If a social news site became the next MySpace, (and it seems to me the 'vine is friendlier and flashier than Digg), my cynical take on everything from upcoming voter turnout to reality TV to general moral responsibility would be rocked.

But I'm not holding my breath.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/08/07/8382571/