hal tweets ·7:42 AM
A short piece I wrote for AOLnews about why Peep culture trumps privacy online. http://bit.ly/bQECsC
2008,
16:20 GMT
Peeping Your Death
Posted by: Hal
Article in Toronto’s Globe and Mail today on a blogger and BBC columnist who chronicled their own demises from illness. “Blogging the process of dying is becoming a small yet poignant fixture on the Internet landscape.” The piece doesn’t give us any sense of why people might want to blog or otherwise make public their deaths, which is too bad.
But peeping death (our own and others) is an interesting piece in the peep puzzle. If we peep ourselves and others in order to be less alone, then it makes sense: what could be lonelier than death?
Of course peep culture has always had an interest in death: the 1978 Faces of Death cult film/montage of death scenes of humans and animals (some real but most fake) has spawned something like six official spin-offs and any number of unofficial imitators.
On the artistic side, there are documentaries like Silverlake Life: the View from Here a video diary of the death by AIDS of Tom Joslin. Here’s a description of the final moments of Joslin’s life as depicted on the video and described by John McGrath in his book Loving Big Brother: “Massi [Joslin’s partner] focuses the camera on each of Joslin’s eyes in turn. One, the lid covered in lesions, is barely visible; the other is clear: ‘that eye he can see in the camera with’. Massi then asks Joslin how he feels and Joslin mutters in a breathy voice, barely intelligible, with Massi attempting to translate: ‘he feels pretty bad, but wants his friends to feel good.’ The video is showing a frame of Joslin’s face, it cuts suddenly to the face again, a slightly different angle. There is a howl then Massi’s voice: ‘This is the first of July and Tommy’s just died.’ Joslin’s clear eye still stares towards the camera.”
2008,
16:58 GMT
Back from Florida, Bad News from Blog Home Office
Posted by: Hal
So I’m back from my Florida vacation. More on that when I get a chance to upload my pictures of gators and beaches and such. Soon, I promise. In the meantime, some bad news from Blog HQ. The first round of numbers are in and they aren’t all that good. Here are my stats:
67 Visits
148 Pageviews
2.21 Pages/Visit
53.73% Bounce Rate
00:02:08 Avg. Time on Site
71.64% % New Visits
Not only have a mere 67 people dropped by, but apparently my 10 days away killed the blog. Basically nobody came. Blog HQ has told me that if I ever want an audience for my blog I better either 1) learn to blog all the time no matter where I am or 2) store up blog posts that automatically publish while I’m away in order to create the illusion that I am always blogging all the time.
So there you go. Hopefully now that I am back and blogging everyday again you, my readers, will return and grow. And to Blog HQ I say this: I’ve learned my lesson. Silence is death. I won’t disappear again!
Also, in my defence, I haven’t really been doing much to promote the blog. It’s not even listed on my home site. I’m going to see what I can do to let more people know it’s out there. Suggestions are, of course, welcome.
2008,
13:51 GMT
Need to Know vs. Want to Know: the Governors of New York
Posted by: Hal
Ellot Spitzer, now former Governor of New York, didn’t think anybody needed to know about his propensity for high priced call girls. He was wrong because 1) he was violating laws he’d sworn to uphold and 2) he was costing the taxpayers money while sating his desires.
The now sworn-in new Governor of New York, David A. Paterson, apparently feels like people do need to know about his extramarital affairs. On his first day of the job he held a news conference and announced that he’d had several affairs “including one”, as the New York Times reports, “with a state employee.”
The fact that Paterson felt compelled to get up in front of the world and, with his wife at his side, discuss the intimate details of their rocky relationship, indicates the extent to which a culture of Peep has taken hold of our society. Paterson had to get up there and peep himself because he was worrried, as he said at the news conference, that he would be “blackmailed” and that if the stories were to come out New Yorkers would lose faith in him.
But the real issue is that in the age of Peep media would be all over this “story”, eager to turn intimate into entertainment. As the New York Times reports: “Just after the swearing-in, while Mr. Paterson’s supporters were still celebrating, the new administration was plunged into its first crisis, as a Daily News columnist inquired about a past affair and Mr. Paterson and his mostly untested advisers debated how to handle the matter.” The Daily News wanting to know — and inevitably finding out — is what Paterson knew would happen if he didn’t circumvent the process by peeping himself. In this way, Paterson and his wife can control the flow of information and prevent people coming forward claiming to have been the new Governor’s one-time mistress or whatever. Naturally the couple declined to provide a laundry list of the people they’ve slept with and now the story is over. It would be difficult for even the most purient media outlet to justify further digging.
Spitzer can really only blame one person. But any reprecussions that come Governor Paterson’s way because of his remarkable news conference are not so much the result of his past actions but the result of a society that is all too ready to turn the need to know into the want to know.
2008,
15:51 GMT
Let It Out
Posted by: Hal
Couldn't resist one more post before I go. There's a new Kleenex site that harnesses the energies of peep to the marketing of tissue. It's called Let It Out and it's basically videos and short posts by anonymous individuals venting about their problems. It's like Post Secret meets Hallmark. Corporations are jumping on the peep bandwagon like there's no tomorrow. Why not? People all over the world generate the content for a fraction of the price a traditional campaign would cost and they just sit back and enjoy the branding. It makes you want to cry. It makes you want to...Let It Out! I don't have time right now but when I get back from vacation I'll try posting some possibly "inappropriate" letting it out posts to the Kleenex site and let you know how long they last. You do the same and posts the links in the comments.
2008,
15:18 GMT
Peeping You Peeping Me; Florida; A Fight with W
Posted by: Hal
So got the first stats report on the blog. 32 readers so far spending an average of 2 minutes and 30 seconds on the page. I’m flattered. I haven’t really put it out there yet, they only way anyone would know it existed is through my Facebook page so 32 is probably pretty good. It’s also interesting to see the amount of detail that you can get regarding the visitors to your page. I know what city you are from and how long you spend on the page and in some cases even where you work (someone, for instance, from the CBC was reading the page…I know who you are by the way!) So I can peep you peeping me. I’ll try and keep a running update on the whole stats thing as it develops. In the meantime, if you are a total stranger who just happens to like reading my blog, by all means please do get in touch and let us know how you came to the site.
***
In other news tomorrow we leave for Florida for a week or so. I won’t be blogging from Florida, primarily because the place we’re staying has no internet access. Otherwise I would blog for sure. I’m not that big a fan of vacations. I like to work and I like to hike and canoe and get away from the world. But beach and sightseeing isn’t my thing. I’m not complaining, I’m just saying that’s my preference. W loves the beach and so does our two year-old and all in all it’s pretty fun making sand castles and collecting shells with a two year-old. Still I’m looking forward to when E is older and we can take the adventure quotient up a notch.
***
Trying to pack up to go always leads to fighting in my family. This morning in the midst of packing W discovered that I left E’s shoes at the community centre on Saturday. I got yelled at. I’m a bad boy. I would probably have gotten yelled at less if we weren’t going to Florida tomorrow but I think W sees it as my subtle way to sabotage the family holiday. Not true. I’m just forgetful…By the time I got back from dropping E off at daycare and W was heading out to work all was (somewhat) forgiven. Called the community centre to see if they had found the shoes and they said they would look and call me back. They haven’t called back yet, which doesn’t bode well. How long could it take to check and see if anyone turned in a pair of white and pink New Balance sneakers? E wore her brown shoes to daycare today instead.
The Bloggist
Hey, I’m Hal Niedzviecki. I’m a writer/thinker who lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with my wife and daughter. Up till now I’ve always considered myself a private person. But at the same time I’m fascinated by people who effortlessly open themselves up to the whole world. So I’ve… more...
A short piece I wrote for AOLnews about why Peep culture trumps privacy online. http://bit.ly/bQECsC
New content on the Broken Pencil website! Short fiction: Shack the Clam Girl + How to Make Your Own Game Cabinet http://bit.ly/b6CHLP
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