Malcolm Mead writes in his blog:
Web 2.0 isn't a commentary on how great the Internet is going to be for bringing people together, it's a commentary for how lousy it HAS been to date in getting people together. So, for years, we've been using technology that essentially disconnects us, keeps us hidden behind emails and text messages. We've been so desperate for connection that we, as a society, invented smiley faces 😉
So Web 2.0 isn't the new revolution, it's just a relief from the original isolating process.
Everything old is new again, as Bob Fosse once wrote. Myspace is IRC with pictures. Flickr is BBS’s and posting files to anonymous FTPs. And peer-to-peer is Zmodem, or maybe Kermit for those of you old enough to remember these things.