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My friend and colleague Lakshmi Chaudhry has a really incisive essay in the latest issue of the Nation about the increasingly societal value we place on fame and recognition and the ways in which the internet has exacerbated that tendency:

For all the talk about coming together, Web 2.0's greatest successes have capitalized on our need to feel significant and admired and, above all, to be seen. The latest iteration of digital democracy has indeed brought with it a new democracy of fame, but in doing so it has left us ever more in the thrall of celebrity, except now we have a better shot at being worshiped ourselves. As MySpace luminary Christine Dolce told the New York Post, "My favorite comment is when people say that I'm their idol. That girls look up to me.