There are huge problems in Silicon Valley. The sheer cost of running the huge servers required to store tons of information has started to worry the sort of free media and social networking sites that came of age during what is known as the "Web 2.0" era - defined as 2004 to the beginning of the economic crisis at the end of 2007. All of them subscribed to a widely accepted business blueprint: build huge global audiences with a free service and let advertising pay the bills. The problem is: the model doesn't seem to be working. There are signs, however, that the method of delivery of media does not change basic human desires, which in many cases old media companies have served for decades, even centuries. It had, for example, become axiomatic that the multi-channel and Internet era led to a loss of that shared sense of a national television culture that existed when there were four wonky channels with only one decent programme between them. Unless, surprisingly, you are a youngster and thus the future of media. "For younger viewers, watching TV is a social experience," explained Tess Alps, chief executive of the marketing body Think Box. "One of the trends that's growing is teens and twentysomethings watching TV and using social networking sites like Twitter to conduct online conversations about what they are watching."
