Gibson's point seem to be that the 1996 Web is not so much itself a waste of time as a great tool for wasting time, and that that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Gibson's point seem to be that the 1996 Web is not so much itself a waste of time as a great tool for wasting time, and that that's not necessarily a bad thing. He also notes how this state of freedom and freeform-ness that encourages "surfing the Web" is fleeting and will pass to be replaced with something more conventional and structured. I came back to this essay several times over the years and each time I read it I take a moment to appreciate how true its core observation rings. It can be considered a successful if somewhat vague prophecy about what the WWW has since in large part become: a delivery mechanism for traditional, one-to-many media. You could see that same thing happen in miniature on YouTube throughout its short history: the many-to-many system of its early days has been overshadowed by prepackaged shows. I'm not saying it's a bad thing (personally, I enjoy some of the shows), but it's different.