It's a humble opinion, but true nonetheless. And given how easily I tend to slide into the rant, let it be said this isn't a beef, but an observation.
For all it's purported goodness and love. For all the talk and hope of the playing field being leveled. For everything that the internet 
is supposed to be and supposed to offer, really, all it's done is turn the world into one gigantic high school.
Hear me out.
Okay, maybe I'm the unpopular kid that nobody recognizes no matter how many classes they have with him. Or maybe I'm just the transfer student that nobody has had the chance to meet yet. Regardless, for all the billion dollar buyouts and social celebrities, when the digital dust settles and the typographic tumbleweed rolls on through, on the internet, what we're left with is a typical, cliched high school with all the good, the bad and the nasty.
Let me illustrate.
Try breaking into the new world of twitter. It's not really that new and it's not really a new world actually. It's just this year's cool place to hang out. It's the Spring Fling Dance and even though we're all invited to the party, the stage is set and the same people are dancing with each other.
It's always the same people. The cool kids, the pretty girls, the clever nerds, the rich, young entrepreneurs. The sports stars and music machines. The cool teachers and the comedians. On twitter (when it's up) you can tweet and @her this and @him that, but don't punch in your 140 characters of freedom to get noticed. Nobody is watching but you. It's free to join, they're always free to join, but bring your reputation with you.
Sure, we can all play along. We can all join in. We can all chit and chat and tweet and pownce and digg and flurl and vim and crunch and mossberg and scoble and watch and listen.
But we're only watching the real show from the sidelines. We didn't make the football team or the cheerleading squad. Hell, we're not even on the party planning committee or chess club. Not yet, anyway. The playing field is level, or so it seems. No one is refused entry. No blogger is unplugged, but the chances of finding a voice outside your little paradigm of family, friends and passing socialists is slim.
"But that's what the internet is, a place for the small communities to exist and flourish"
Really? That's what the internet is? A place for me and my pals to hang out and talk? A giant mixing machine filled with tiny social circles content with tag cloud obscurity? Small voices clambering to flourish amidst their tiny audiences?
It's easy for the Diggers and Twitterers and StumbleUponers and YouTubers and Placeholders to speak out about the joys of microcelebrity stardom and cupcake parties. But until we use our collective voice to actually change the world, actually make a significant and positive impact on our planet, we're always going to be self congratulatory prom queens and kings giving ourselves digital high fives while we wander through the halls of our school, in between classes on the way to our lockers. Granted there are cool things happening. There are great things happening all the time. There are people being helped, lives being changed and micro-lenders gaining ground. But I'm talking about a global platform for global reform.
High school is cool. Sorry, high school was cool. But high school isn't the purpose, it's just part of the path. One day we need to take off our glasses and let down our hair and reveal the true hottie we've always been. And that's going to involve the people who haven't reached the top of the tiny charts. That's going to be us, the little people.
But then again, maybe I'm just and still the overzealous tenth grader whose idealistic sensibilities lack perspective. Maybe when I grow up and graduate, I'll find out the world is darker and colder than reddit leads me to believe it is.
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