Lovers, Haters and WEIRD People

In “Searching for the ‘You’ in ‘YouTube’: An Analysis of Online Response Ability,” Patricia G. Lange studies the “complex and potentially contentious” nature of social networking today. She examines the extent to which social communities forming on YouTube should be controlled by administrators, parents and the participants themselves. Some participants argue that any form of control is censorship and against their ‘right’ to free speech, while others say that ‘haters’ need to be controlled so as to not discourage creativity.

            After reading this article, I was led to ponder what I would do if I were to participate on YouTube. What would I say? And more importantly, what do I have to say that I need other people to hear so badly? This may be a hugely contradictory statement when taking into account this participation in blogging, but nevertheless is an important question for any hopeful Tuber to ask. I came to the conclusion that, although I haven’t lived quite the normal suburban lifestyle and I’ve travelled around the world and seen many things, I have nothing completely original to offer. Anything and everything I have done, someone else out there has done as well, and most likely done it better.

However, now it appears that this might be more then just a personal thought. It could be a deeply ingrained cultural difference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQGgDY1C1mk

Or please read:

            It appears that I might not be WEIRD, or at least did not grow-up in a Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic culture. But it is very clear that it is these WEIRD people who are so individualistic that spend the most time on YouTube.

I worry about the narcissistic nature of the vlogging that goes on today. I can see the value in vlogs that speak of a larger topic, and maybe relate personal experience and insight where insight is needed, but when any random person with a webcam and a modem thinks what they have to say is vitally important… well, lets just say its getting harder to find the needle in the giant stack of garbage.

            I don’t feel like I need to add to that, and I plead with tuber’s to consider the same questions before going online.

-Lange, P. (2007). 'Searching for the 'You' in 'YouTube': An Analysis of Online Response Ability', In Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference Proceedings 2007(1): 36-50.

Citizen to (Non)-Professional?

A close friend of mine, A.S, started a blog (that I shall not name) in June 2006. This is NOT a story of how a blog managed to shoot to fame; one day with three followers and the next day with 5,000, no; this is not that kind of story. But… five years on, she has just over 300 followers and approximately 2400 views, which is no small feat.

 Her blog, which states, “Repatriation to a borrowed patria: politics, adventure, and life in the United Arab Emirates...with a few stops along the way” talks about the various interesting things that happen everyday in the little country she and I call home. While not all of her postings can be considered journalistic, she did report on the happenings of our town, things that you couldn’t read in the newspaper. More over, her work landed her a job with a new national newspaper.

In a short period of time she went from budding-citizen journalist to professional journalist. What an ideal opportunity to bring the peoples views to the people. The newspaper promised to be a fresh and an uncensored look at the news in a country where all other newspapers are either government owned or strictly controlled to government standards.

A.S was initially given free reign to write as she pleased about anything in our hometown. Bit by bit editors started to cut more and more from her articles, and soon she was told what and what not to write about. With this, A.S happily returned to blogging, as most people in the UAE still do for honest information.

In “Exploring The Second Phase of Public Journalism” J. Nip writes “participatory journalism represents an attempt of news media to incorporate the change in relationship between professional journalism and the people made inevitable by technological change, and as championed by public journalism.”

An attempt and ‘fail’ on the part of this newspaper. Clearly these changes will not come about until some changes are made in the government. And how would the people bring about these changes if they are not well informed? We can only hope that more people turn to citizen journalism and make that necessary change.

- Nip, J. (2006). 'Exploring The Second Phase of Public Journalism, In Journalism Studies,                     7 (2). 212-236.   

Peeping Toms and Tammy’s

The “Canadian Criminal Code Part VI – Invasion of Privacy” states that “Every one who, by means of any electro-magnetic, acoustic, mechanical or other device, wilfully intercepts a private communication is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years.” Thirty-five words out of an 8,429-word document (not including the definitions). The other 8,394 words state when someone IS in fact allowed to invade your privacy.

Many of the reasons come under the categories of believed harmful intent or illegal intent, and that can obviously cover a lot of things. To be honest, I think them mostly rational grounds for invasion of privacy, “If you’ve got nothing to hide, then you’ve got nothing to worry about.” I believe in the statement more so now then ever before, due mostly to the growing exhibition on the Internet today. With a third of the entire population of Canada on Facebook(1), and the hundreds of millions around the world all connected to the Internet, sharing even the most intimate details of their lives to complete strangers, its hard to see why anyone would have cause to complain about these rules, nor even care about them.

I thought we had reached our pinnacle of Peeping Tom phenomenon when the UK based reality show “Big Brother” hit television screens in 2000 (the original in fact was a Dutch Big Brother which had started in 1999). However, this seemed only the catalyst for “Peep” shows everywhere as Big Brother alone spawned 42 versions of the show across the globe. It seems that now the reality TV “Peep” show has reached all new heights with its newest addition “The Jersey Shore”.

I cannot express how much of a “Fail” on society this show is. The fact that these “people” continue to make this show, and even worse, people continue to watch it, it’s just staggeringly disturbing. The “character” Snooki seems to embody the collective want of fame that every person in the world has. It makes me ponder, what’s next?

1. Niedzviecki, H. (2010). "The peep diaries: how we're learning to love watching ourselves and our neighbors"- Introducing Peep Culture.

The Growing Monkeysphere

Baumeister’s “Beasts for Culture” discusses the three worlds that human beings live in: the physical world, the social world and the world of culture. He explores the nature and development of culture and the impact it has had on society at large. Baumeister states, “Culture is an information-based system that allows people to live together and satisfy their needs.”1 Rifkin’s discourse in “Theatrical Self In An Improvisational Society” covers the differences in the dramaturgical consciousness of Generation X and the Millennials, and the impact on society of growing up in a lifestyle fully embedded in the Internet and social networking.2

Both touch on (Rifkin more so than Baumeister) a new global culture being formed over the Internet. With more than two billion people now connected, the sizes and variety of “friends” that people now have online far outweigh that of the social connections people had even ten years ago.

This lead me to think of Dunbar’s number (or Monkeysphere), the theoretical number of people that one person can maintain social relationships with. The average lies between 100 and 250 people, but with social networking at its current height of popularity, these numbers seem to have more than doubled. On Facebook alone, anyone can now keep in regular contact with more than 500 people, checking “statuses” and “tagged” photos.

When one’s monkeysphere becomes so large and meeting face-to-face regularly is not required, people seem less concerned with social etiquette. In many cases, this “friend gathering” has turned into something of a competition, a topic that is referenced in the 2010 South Park Episode “Your have 0 Friends”. A race in popularity, which was once based in schools, has now moved online. As a result, boundaries of socially acceptable behaviour are being pushed, manipulated and even broken. Social behaviour that we would hope to never see in person is now becoming widely acceptable amongst impressionable teenagers, as their online lives take over their whole lives. When did it become acceptable to post on your Twitter page: “That awkward moment when you walk into the toilet and the person before didn't flush. >.<” I’m sorry TeenDreaming, but does anyone actually want to read this? Would you say that to someone in public? I hope not. But something makes me think that she/he would.

1. Baumeister, R. F. (2005). Beasts for Culture
2. Rifkin, J. (2009). The Theatrical Self In An Improvisational Society.