Well, it's official.

January 3, 2001 5:41 PM

Well, it's official. Civilization has now come to an end; drowned in a sea of vapid mediocrity and fad. In five years, will anyone still give a damn about Brittney Spears?
posted by Steven Den Beste (21 comments total)

I think all this proves is that the internet is overrun with dorky teenagers.
posted by Mr. skullhead at 6:04 PM on January 3, 2001

This makes watching the Shining all the much scarier. All work and no play make McLuhan a dull boy.
posted by tiaka at 6:24 PM on January 3, 2001

Go Altavista, not afraid to show which term was the most widely searched for.
posted by Zool at 6:41 PM on January 3, 2001

heh. 'yahoo'
posted by tiaka at 7:12 PM on January 3, 2001

... No doubt her name appeared most often followed by "naked", however.

And who the heck uses a search engine to find hotmail or yahoo? Sure, *some* people... but that many? Wow.
posted by whatnotever at 8:06 PM on January 3, 2001

In five years, will anyone still give a damn about Brittney Spears?

that largely depends on whether she's as skilled as vapid self-reinvention as Madonna and Kylie.

posted by lagado at 8:30 PM on January 3, 2001

It's not that bad. Yahoo's buzz list also has Ms. Spears ranked 4th, the United States Postal Service ranked 13th, and Jennifer Lopez ranked 12th. Clearly the list is unreliable. On the other hand maybe a lot of people really like the postal service.
posted by rdr at 8:51 PM on January 3, 2001

And who the heck uses a search engine to find hotmail or yahoo?

Someone who was unfortunate enough to have their homepage set to AltaVista and doesn't know how to change it or use the address bar.
posted by daveadams at 9:04 PM on January 3, 2001

I found a setting on IE 5 that lets you switch the address bar off. If you didn't have it at install time (and it's possible that people wouldn't) who would be able to figure out how to get it back? Other than geeks.
posted by davidgentle at 9:26 PM on January 3, 2001

Is right-click, Address Bar all that non-obvious to anyone who's been using Windows for more than six months?
posted by ffmike at 9:48 PM on January 3, 2001

In five years, will anyone still give a damn about AltaVista, Lycos and Yahoo?
posted by frenetic at 12:15 AM on January 4, 2001

ffmike: the number of people who don't know about toolbars is astounding. The number of people I've helped by right-clicking and putting a toolbar back - while they're sitting at their desk watching me do so - and then done it again and again and again is just plain disturbing.

Toolbars, for most users, aren't that well known an entity.
posted by cCranium at 3:18 AM on January 4, 2001

s/most/many. Stupid over-active posting finger.
posted by cCranium at 3:18 AM on January 4, 2001

"Pop culture" has its name for a reason. Look at our most popular TV shows, our most read magazines, and our most viewed movies. Does it really surprise anyone that we search the internet more for pop items than others?

It would be a nice change if the most asked question to Ask Jeeves was How do I help to stop suffering in the world?, but the general population is more concerned about other things.
posted by goto11 at 6:29 AM on January 4, 2001

you're missing the point. the idea that there *used* to be substance to american culture is a fallacy. Twenty, 40, 100 years ago Americans were concerned with silly crap. but the silly crap doesn't stick around, so we forget that it ever existed. the next time your grandfather bitches about "Who Let the Dogs Out" being unlistenable junk, remind him that when he was a kid, the charts were ruled by "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window".
posted by jpoulos at 7:41 AM on January 4, 2001

mildly related, I heard on the radio this morning (haven't seen a link to an online media source anywhere) that Madonna said she admires Spears.

Just doing my part to spread the gossip.
posted by cCranium at 7:45 AM on January 4, 2001

Obviously, these people's brains have been so polluted and corrupted by the dumbing influence of pop culture that they are physiologically unable to remember how toolbars in IE work. ;)

No seriously, I'd say probably 96% of Windows users would never ever figure that out. Right-click for context is amazingly not a very well-spread meme. It should be emphasized over and over again in basic Windows training. Unfortunately a lot of programs (including MS) don't always use the right-click menu properly, consistently, or well if at all.

That said, the toolbar system in IE/other windows programs is quite convenient and flexible, but still mind-numbingly difficult to get exactly what you want sometimes. I'm not sure how you could improve the interface but right now it isn't the easiest thing in the world to deal with.
posted by daveadams at 7:49 AM on January 4, 2001

But this is not just about American culture! The internet is world-wide; those search engines are used by people from all over the world! (or so they tell us)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 8:33 AM on January 4, 2001

I can't help but imagine that if the word 'Metafilter' were number one on the charts, there'd be a similar conversation to this thread going on in an egroups mailing list filled with prepubescent females.

"Like, can you BELIEVE it? What the hell is a metafilter anywayz? What about BRITTANY SPEARS!? She should be number one!"

Well, one can dream anyway. =)
posted by ZachsMind at 8:53 AM on January 4, 2001

Does anyone honestly think it was females searching for Britney Spears?
posted by dagnyscott at 10:48 AM on January 4, 2001

I believe it. My 12-year-old niece is obsessed. And you know what? There isn't a CD player in the house.
posted by dhartung at 4:43 PM on January 4, 2001