So-called Web 2.0, the latest round of interactive, Internet-based tools and services, is to be our salvation. Raising their iPod-clutching fists to the sky, the technorati are demanding we take note of a new golden era, where we can be online everywhere and in every way. Our happiness, like cable TV and satellite radio, is to be on-demand.

I, for one, am happy to have evolved beyond dial-up Internet, cell phones only good for telephone calls and free file swapping.

I truly pity the curmudgeons among us who remain nostalgic for a simpler, lower-tech time. True, it was a time without terrorism, a time without overseas job outsourcing, but a time also without TiVo.

Life is so much easier and hassle-free now that MP3 players offer us a blessed excuse not to hear or talk to anyone we don't care to. And soon we will be freed from having to look at people as well, turning our attention instead to TV and movies displayed conveniently on our cell phones and other portable devices. How liberating it will be to be able to watch TV outdoors while jogging, hiking or riding a bicycle! The hunger for that kind of boundless freedom is certainly what makes the U.S. the worldwide leader in innovation.

There are other advantages of Web 2.0 as well.