My First Steps into Web 2.0

This week was a bit of a full-circle moment for me. After a few years of scrolling, clicking, saving, and occasionally lurking, I finally created something of more of my own: this blog. In doing so, I hope to explore what exactly Web 2.0 means, and why it’s so much more than just an internet upgrade.

Before this course, I loosely associated Web 2.0 with social media and user-generated content. But now I understand it’s also about a shift in power: from companies to users, from static content to interaction, and from isolated experiences to networked participation. Web 1.0 was a digital library, mostly read-only. Web 2.0 is more like a workshop or community center, where everyone is creating, remixing, and responding.

Setting up this blog helped me reflect on just how different Web 2.0 tools really are. Unlike traditional internet tools, like static webpages, Web 2.0 tools invite dialogue. They’re built around engagement. Blogs have comment sections. Social media has likes, shares, and duets. Wikis are living documents, and discussion boards grow through collective knowledge. These tools don’t just deliver information, they co-create it. They blur the line between learner and teacher, expert and beginner.

Even though I’ve been using Web 2.0 tools for years like Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and Google Docs, I hadn’t stopped to consider how they support learning in nontraditional ways. Now that I’ve started this blog, I see how even something as simple as writing a reflection can shift from passive to participatory. I'm not just documenting my thoughts, I'm starting a conversation.

These first posts are a small step, but they mark a mindset shift in which I’m no longer just scrolling. I’m beginning to contribute.