hal tweets ·1:04 PM
Indie comics in 80s LA, a homage featuring Groening, Panter, Hernandez bros…. http://bit.ly/b1FcGM
2009,
20:26 GMT
Ignore Me. If You Can: Thoughts About "25 Random Things About Me"
Posted by: Hal
If you've been on Facebook over the last month or so you've probably gotten a message from one of your friends that starts like this:
"Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you."
I've gotten 20 or so of these I think. And I've probably read about 20 or 30. Five million or so notes on people’s Facebook profiles were created in the first week of February, double the previous week and more than any other single week in Facebook history. According to Facebook HQ, it was the "Random Things" phenom that caused the explosion.
Almost as interesting as the thing itself is the media response. (Gawker noted that "the trend pieces about Facebook's '25 random things' lists are spreading even faster than the freaking lists themselves.") Writes The New York Times: "A chain-letter-cum-literary exercise called 25 Random Things About Me — is threatening to consume what little remaining free time and privacy we have." "This is just another online outbreak of mass self-disclosure and self-importance," complains the Washington Post. "Like personality e-mail forwards of yore (boxers or briefs? Pacino or De Niro?). Everyone is typing out Random Things this week, and asking -- nay, tagging -- us to do the same." The Boston Globe puts it this way: "To a growing chorus of critics, 25 Random Things is nothing more than industrial-strength narcissism, an intrusive, time-wasting, Internet chain letter."
But an interesting thing happens in these articles. They start out all dismissive and snarky but the end up pretty mushy. The Salon piece on the phenomenon is a good example. Robert Lanham starts out trashing it, of course, but ends up with: "Once you stop being annoyed you realize that, at its best, it's one of the more compelling -- and, yes, even oddly inspiring -- wastes of time to hit the Web in years."
He's right and wrong. He's right because it is an inspiring trend - the sort of thing that redeems Peep culture and reminds us of what a world might be like in which could know each other not as statistics, demographics, competition and customers, but as human beings. He's wrong because it's not really all that much of a waste of time. Who is wasting their time? For the writer who does it, they're cobbling together a kind of written portrait of their inner lives, an exercise that's pretty much always revealing, cathartic and even fun. For the reader, you get the immediacy and intrinsically compelling elements of Peep without the seedy - should I be watching this feeling of Reality TV. And, of course, if you don't want to read them, then how hard is it to just not click on the link? It's easy to ignore it, except for the fact that, as all the commentators above suggest, and as all the millions who have preceded their lists with remarks like "I never do things like this..." there's something so undeniably compelling about these lists that, ultimately, it becomes impossible to ignore. And something that's impossible to ignore is rarely a waste of time.
It's funny observing people who blather on for a living, very often about nothing, complain about a trend that basically involves millions doing the same thing - but often far more honestly, poetically, and meaningfully than your typical columnist would ever dare. 25 Random Things is, at the end of the day, a great example of the sort of grassroots, DIY creativity that Peep makes possible. It reminds me a lot of the kinds of material people used to put into their personal zines in the 80s and 90s: painfully earnest, ardently self aware, but also truthful, sweet and desperate. Why desperate? Because at the heart of Peep is the desperation to be known, not as "one of those annoying losers who couldn't ignore this lame internet trend" but as actual people who commune and communicate with each other, their families, their world.
So in that spirit, feel free to send me your list. And next week I will post to the blog and Facebook the much anticipated "25 Random Things About Hal". Ignore it. If you can.
2009,
14:14 GMT
Globe and Mail Articles on Facebook: A Snapshot of Media's Struggle to 'Get' Peep
Posted by: Hal
In keeping with this week's theme on the blog, today I ask: Is traditional media struggling to come to terms with the rise of Peep culture? Not one, not two, but three articles about Facebook currently being displayed on the main page of the Globe and Mail suggest what's going on.
Article one is a news story about the rise of Facebook jealousy. Here's the crux of it: "Two University of Guelph psychology PhD students conducted a survey of 308 Facebook users and found the more time they spent on the site, the more suspicious they became of their partners." Reading the article and you'd conclude, particularly if you don't use Facebook, that the site consists of nothing but jealous harpies relentlessly tracking their men. There isn't a single opposing viewpoint. As the article ends: "bottom line: Facebook 'seems to make it difficult for people to trust, even when they feel confident in their partner,' Ms. Christofides says." The unstated flipside of this: trust us, the traditional filtered professional media. We won't drive you crazy with jealousy.
Article two is another misguided rant about the Random Things About Me craze. Here Ivor Tossell compares the phenomenon to a "plague", a "virus", a "flu" and "chain letter". As I wrote the other day , there's an epidemic of columnists falling all over themselves in their rush to mock this trend. Why? Their disgust and horror says more about the insecurity of mainstream media than it does about the millions of people who are obviously enjoying reading and writing these innocent and often quite beautiful lists. (Mine is coming next week...I promise.) Tossell's piece ends: "Enormous Web fads are like the weather. It comes, it goes, and no amount of praying is going to stop it." The unstated message: Peep culture is nothing but a lame fad. We keep praying it will stop. People should be reading our expert ruminations, not the drivel about their lives they and their friends keep coming up with.
Article three is a business story: The headline says it all: "Facebook pegs company's value at $3.7-billion (U.S.)" In other words, FB HQ thinks that's what their worth. The story then spirals into the details of various legal issues regarding FB's battling creators, but there's really no point even trying to spin this story: FB is a gold mine worth tons more than many of the biggest media outlets in the world. Finally an unambiguous message: Peep products and services aren't going anywhere. They are, in fact, clearly supplanting many aspects of traditional media.
A note about my 25 Random Things post: several people have asked how they could send me their lists. You can always email me at hal<at>brokenpencil.com, you can also add me as a Facebook friend and then tag me to your list, or if you're doing it on a blog, post the link to my blog and I'll check it out.
2009,
23:21 GMT
25 Random Things AboutHal
Posted by: Hal
1) I have a giant barbecue in my backyard. It’s like the Humvee of barbecues. I really like to barbecue.
2) Several times in my life I’ve considered giving up writing to pursue some kind of cooking career. This was long before hipsters started making their own ricotta.
3) I’ve never actually made a ‘zine. I feel weirdly guilty about that. I’ve had a lot of ideas for ‘zines. For instance, Mommy Trader, which would look exactly like Auto Trader only it would be based on the buying, selling and trading of Mommies.
4) Another idea I recently had - a series of videos called The Wonder Authors that would be a spoof of the kids show The Wonder Pets (in which 3 pre-school age pets rescue other animals, see http://www.nickjr.com/home/wond_about.jhtml). In my spoof, Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje and one other rotating cast member (Timothy Findley back from the dead, Barbara Gowdy, Michael Winter etc.) would rescue other Canadian Authors from jeopardy. Like the show, all the dialogue would be in song - Atwood: “A writer, a Canadian writer’s in trouble!” Ondaatje: “We have to help him!” Michael Winter: “How can we help him?” Atwood: “A letter, we’ll write a letter!” Ondaatje: “A strongly worded letter!” Winter: “To get him a grant!” Atwood: “But who can write it?” “Ondaatje: “I’m much too busy!” Winter: “And so am I!” If you’ve ever seen the Wonder Pets you will hopefully think this is funny. If you’ve never seen the Wonder Pets you will have no idea what I’m talking about. If you want to make this video with me, I’m ready and willing. My wife has already volunteered to make the author puppets.
5) I met my wife in my second year of university. Before getting married we broke up 4 or maybe 5 times over a period of six or seven years. She just couldn’t shake me.
6) I play hockey 2 or 3 times a week. On my hockey team I am known for my move ‘The Octopus’, a kind of catch and release manoeuvre in which I briefly impede an opposing player’s progress, then let him go before the referee notices and gives me a penalty.
7) Here are my current stats, lifetime, with my hockey team: GP: 536 G: 108 A: 211 Pts: 319 PIM: 282 GWG: 13 GTG 5 PPG 8 SHG: 2 Ejections: 2
8) In terms of sports, I also enjoy basketball, kayaking, canoeing, hiking, cross country skiing, ultimate Frisbee, Frisbee golf (if you can call that a sport) and ball hockey. I never jog, work out, swim laps, or do any solitary exercise that I can avoid. I like group sports, perhaps because I spend most of days alone. Some of the sports above I have done very few times, and a few of them I have only done drunk.
9) I sometimes think to myself: I should have more friends. Why don’t I have more friends? But I’m not entirely sure how many friends a person should have. For all I know I already have more friends than is normal and/or necessary.
10) When my wife gets home from work I sometimes recount the day’s events at my (home) office. This generally involves the exploits of me and several of my co-workers, make-believe animals who share my office: “Teddy Bear was reprimanded by Boss Pig today.” “Puppy Dog and me had lunch at the Indian buffet down the street. All you can eat. That dog can really eat.”
11) I’m actually pretty lazy. I’d be happy just writing for two hours everyday and spending the rest of the time puttering around in my garden.
12) Me and this guy I met at my kid’s daycare just went in together on a package of three kinds of mushroom cultures. We’re going to implant them in rotting tree trunks and leave them lying around our respective yards.
13) While the meat cooks on the barbecue I like to wander around my tiny backyard garden pulling weeds and securing errant cucumber vines to the chain link fence. Last summer, all my cucumber plants turned brown and died for no apparent reason. Also last summer, the hardy kiwi vine I planted about seven years ago first yielded fruit - grape sized kiwis with a smooth exterior.
14) My neighbour - the other neighbour, not the nice one - threatened to kill me some years back.
15) Currently, I get the feeling that my brother isn’t talking to me.
16) About the only thing I haven’t contemplated writing is a play. I do not want to ever write a play. Writing a play feels too much like writing about writing, which I also do not ever want to do.
17) I like and demand order and cleanliness but I am, myself, a bit of a slob. You can barely see the floor in my small office and everything is covered in a thin veil of dust.
18) There is very rarely a day when I do not contemplate my death. I imagine my funeral - what songs should be played, who might attend - and think that when my time comes it will be a relief for everyone, particularly me. I often tell my wife: “When I go I don’t want a funeral. Just bury me in the backyard next to the kiwi vine.” She just pats me on the back: “Okay big boy. Whatever you say.”
19) I usually tear up at weddings, funerals and even Bar Mitzvahs. It’s something about the ceremony, because right before and right after I’m back to thinking about what will hopefully turn out to be an open bar.
20) At my Bar Mitzvah I surreptitiously drank three glasses of white wine and was sent to the basement to sleep it off.
21) At my cousin’s Bar Mitzvah I drank so many gin and tonics that my mother stationed herself at the open bar to ward me off, like hanging a string of garlic bulbs over a doorway to forestall a vampire.
22) My only remaining grandparent is Zadie Abraham, who lives in a home in Montreal. He’s 97. We were never very close, but I still feel like I should call him. The truth is, I almost never call him.
23) I tend to think: I should do this. Then I think, why should I do this? I won’t do this unless I really want to do this. I won’t do this just because it is expected of me. In this way, I play out my daily battle with myself over such issues as social propriety, hypocrisy, morality, community, and “the public good” versus “individual interest”.
24) My favourite play to see performed is Waiting for Godot.
25) I have more back hair than most human males have on their chests. Sometimes, when I’m lying on the couch, my 3 year-old daughter will approach me, pull up my shirt and start to gently comb my back hair with the brush that came with one of her dolls. The feel of the plastic bristles on my back hair is weirdly soothing.
2009,
16:40 GMT
Is Facebook Gossip, Entertainment or Friendship? Hal discusses on CBC Radio's Q
Posted by: Hal
So this morning I’m going to be on CBC Radio’s art and lifestyle show Q talking about Facebook, in particular responding to a study just released by the Economist.
The study basically shows that the average person has around 120 “friends” on Facebook but that most people only actively follow and comment on the profiles/status updates/pictures/wall posts of say 10-15 of those “friends.”
This is pretty much a validation of what I’ve been arguing in terms of Peep Culture, that we use social networks less as genuine attempts to achieve friendship and more as a combination of entertainment, marketing and gossip (not the gossip that used to keep community cohesive, but the new global cyber gossip that allows us to feel like we have relationships with people we don’t know).
The truth is that although many of us claim that we only add people we know, most of us do not really ‘know’ 120 people in any meaningful way. We’re adding them because the urge to do is irresistible. With the click of a button, we’re entertaining ourselves and marketing ourselves. It’s all very addictive and exciting. (I’m totally guilty of this…the other day someone accused me of being FB friend obsessed….I thought about it for about 4 seconds before realizing that she was totally right…I need help.)
So check out the show if you want to hear me discussing this in more detail, it’s on today at 10am est but they also have a podcast.
2009,
12:25 GMT
Two Articles on Social Networks that Are Also a Bit About Me
Posted by: Hal
Article #1: In the Globe and Mail, it’s called Twitterstalking. Talks about using Twitter to monitor others without their necessarily knowing, people such as ex’s and even current partners. It’s pretty interesting, particularly the discussion of wanting to know everything about your loved ones’ lives, but also needing to trust them and do their own thing.
Article #2: In the Montreal Gazette and the National Post. It’s called Facebook vultures and it deals with people who use Facebook friends to achieve particular aims, then toss them aside. My ideas are discussed in the bottom half of the article. The main focus of this story is someone who is used by a FB friend and real acquaintance as the go-between to meet another person, a local celebrity that the FB vulture wants to meet.
Both articles are actually pretty interesting, of course I would think so, since they both feature my ideas in them. What’s fascinating is the varied ways Peep culture mechanisms are altering core values: We can stalk, we can pretend friend, we can spy on ex’s and loved ones. All this stuff is pretty much okay so long as it stays online. But when it enters the real world, it brushes up against real world morality and suddenly it’s not right. More and more, the Peep culture is brushing up against and confronting everyday life.
McLEODWOODSIDE/The Globe and Mail
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...
Indie comics in 80s LA, a homage featuring Groening, Panter, Hernandez bros…. http://bit.ly/b1FcGM
Issue 47 (spring) is now completely ‘unlocked’ on the NEW Broken Pencil website. Web TV, Liz Worth on punk TO & more http://bit.ly/bXvQuP
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