The Tripping Point

Some of you may have read that headline as “TIPping Point.” Read it again: it says “TRIPping Point.”

If you’re familiar with Malcolm Gladwell’s book, you’ll know that TIPping Point is a sociological term defined as the exact moment when something unique becomes something common.

MySpace, Blogs, Podcasts, Google AdWords, YouTube, etc. were all unique — but once accepted by the masses (and how much more mass can you get than a Paris Hilton channel on YouTube?) became common.

My definition of TRIPping Point is when that unique item has stumbled beyond common and fallen on its face. Although I think there’s still plenty of life left in (most) of the examples above — a few of them are starting to drag their feet a bit. The one with its shoelaces untied and getting more tangled with each step is MySpace.

Besides all the obvious troubles with sexual predators using it as a smorgasbord, and the growing glut of commercial pages within the site — when services like this begin to pop-up, expect a fall to follow.