hal tweets ·11:28 AM
Ghostbuster zines from the Canzine Hollywood Piracy Zine Challenge are now online! http://t.co/RoAMEQTU
2009,
11:27 GMT
Deleted Photos Linger on Networking Sites
Posted by: Hal
A Cambridge study concluded that “a dismal 7 of the 16 sites failed to revoke photos after 30 days”. In other words, when they uploaded and then deleted photos from various social networks, blog sites and photo sharing sites, they found that the photos remained in the system 30 days later 7 out of 16 times. Sites that continued to retain photos included Facebook, MySpace and LiveJournal.
It doesn’t take much of an imagination to think of all kinds of ways people might exploit the loophole of the lingering pics.
2009,
12:41 GMT
Report on the Toronto Launch of Peep
Posted by: Hal
So it was a packed house last night as I chased the tail of peep, trying to keep up with my own fast paced presentation. The home town crowd was forgiving and appreciative, and it was great to see everybody. (Note to self, slow it down…)
This morning in my in-box I found the following very kind, poetic and unsolicited description of the evening, provided by the fantastic Chris Reed, coordinator of the This Is Not A Reading Series events:
“The story of your Facebook party (or lack thereof) was a lovely way to start to show. It underscored the degree to which feelings of loneliness and alienation motivate people to seek out ‘peep pals’ in the first place. Your video was a wonderful mixture of the surreal and the sad. At several points it seemed as if you were chasing after a rabbit, trying to catch the ephemera of cyberspace long enough to catch the light.”
So here are some pictures of the launch, and, again, thanks to all! I’m off to take the kid to daycare. A few more posts (about the first day of documentary shooting – yesterday, of all days!) and more coming later today.
getting started
in the swing of things, cameraman Marc taking a rare break from following me around to capture audience reaction (they are fascinated, of course…)
signing books while the documentary crew lurks in the background. hey what does everyone think of my new shirt?
ah it’s all over, now it’s time to do shots of vodka with the TINARS mascot Winston the Penguin…
2009,
17:24 GMT
Peeping Farrah Fawcett’s Death
Posted by: Hal
9 million viewers tuned in to watch Farrah Fawcett dying of cancer, which makes Farrah, according to some commentators, our Jade Goody.
Goody, you probably recall, was the British Reality TV star best known (until her resurgence courtesy of cancer) for racist comments spewed on Big Brother All Stars UK.
Goody, like Farrah, went with the televised death route. (Said Goody: “I’ve lived my whole adult life talking about my life. The only difference is that I’m talking about my death now. It’s OK.”) General reaction to the decision of Goody and Farrah to televise their dying has been knee-jerk: it’s courageous and brave. (“‘Farrah’s Story’ a tale of inner strength,” said MSNBC.) Plus they do it to raise awareness of “insert type of cancer here”.
This, of course, is nonsense. If Fawcett wanted to raise awareness of the rare form of cancer that will soon take her life, there are a lot better ways to do it than make a reality tv movie-of-the-week described by the New York Times as “awful because it was an exploitative portrait of a celebrity’s fight with cancer.”
The Times critique continues: “... NBC took Ms. Fawcett’s candid video diary and allowed it to be packaged as a generic VH1 ‘Behind the Music’ biography — maudlin music, gauzy slow-motion film, and pseudo-revealing interviews with friends, coworkers, doctors and hairdressers reminiscing about a former star.”
I’m fascinated by the way Peep Culture is changing our approach to death. (This deserves much longer consideration…I’d like to find a venue interested in a longer piece on this.) In Peep, death, once consigned to the shadows, it’s now the last frontier of spot light entertainment. If somebody’s slow lingering death can be packaged into mainstream corporate entertainment, then, let’s face it, anything can be packaged and turned into televised product. Plus the dying have a marketing advantage: no matter how good or bad it is, people will tune in because they know it’s the grand finale.
This isn’t Farrah Fawcett’s first foray into Reality TV. Nor was Jade Goody’s 3 part mini-series long goodbye some neophyte attempt to break into the business and fulfill a final dream. In fact, Goody publically stated her desire to milk every last drop of her fame to earn as much money as possible for her family before she died. (It’s like Walt in Breaking Bad – anything is permissible if you’re dying and doing it for your family.)
In the end, these are seasoned veterans of the small screen who can’t, won’t or don’t want to let go of the limelight.
“She deserves a different, less exploitative television tribute,” the New York Times said of Farrah’s special. I’m not sure she does.
2009,
10:50 GMT
Credit Card Peep
Posted by: Hal
Really good article in the New York Times Magazine that lays out how credit card companies are learning more and more about us by examining what we buy, how often we check our balances online, and whether or not we go to the dentist. More information we give away for “free” that is used in ways we could never have imagined. Further extension of surveillance into everyday life. Plus there’s a Canadian Tire connection.
Here are a few excerpts:
The Big Picture
Luckily for the industry, small groups of executives at most of the large firms have spent the last decade studying cardholders from almost every angle, and collection agencies have developed more sophisticated dunning techniques. They have sought to draw psychological and behavioral lessons from the enormous amounts of data the credit-card companies collect every day. They’ve run thousands of tests and crunched the numbers on millions of accounts.
The Canadian Tire Breakthrough
The exploration into cardholders’ minds hit a breakthrough in 2002, when J. P. Martin, a math-loving executive at Canadian Tire, decided to analyze almost every piece of information his company had collected from credit-card transactions the previous year…His data indicated that people who bought cheap, generic automotive oil were much more likely to miss a credit-card payment than someone who got the expensive, name-brand stuff. People who bought carbon-monoxide monitors for their homes or those little felt pads that stop chair legs from scratching the floor almost never missed payments. Anyone who purchased a chrome-skull car accessory or a “Mega Thruster Exhaust System” was pretty likely to miss paying his bill eventually.
Peep your Customers
Most of the major credit-card companies have set up systems to comb through cardholders’ data for signs that someone is going to stop making payments. Are cardholders suddenly logging in at 1 in the morning? It might signal sleeplessness due to anxiety. Are they using their cards for groceries? It might mean they are trying to conserve their cash. Have they started using their cards for therapy sessions? Do they call the card company in the middle of the day, when they should be at work? What do they say when a customer-service representative asks how they’re feeling? Are their sighs long or short? Do they respond better to a comforting or bullying tone?
At Capital One’s Card Lab you can pick and chose various card options and design your own card with a picture of your child on it. The company carefully records your every mouse click.
2009,
10:54 GMT
Review of Peep in Now Magazine (Toronto)
Posted by: Hal
Nice review of Peep in Toronto’s alt-weekly Now Magazine. Here’s the last paragraph:
“Writing with astonishing clarity – and even beauty – Niedzviecki piles on the ironies. In peep culture, TV shows like Cops, originally intended to curb crime, wind up promoting it. Devastatingly, surfers who overshare in an effort to find community – like many using amateur porn sites – wind up feeling more alone than ever. Essential reading.”
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...
Ghostbuster zines from the Canzine Hollywood Piracy Zine Challenge are now online! http://t.co/RoAMEQTU
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