hal tweets ·7:42 AM
A short piece I wrote for AOLnews about why Peep culture trumps privacy online. http://bit.ly/bQECsC
Television
2009,
18:55 GMT
Back in Action in 2009: Hal's new Macy's wardrobe, Adventures in Translation and JohnTV
Posted by: Hal
Okay I'm back and I'm blogging. I spent the holidays with W. and E. in the suburbs of Maryland. There are a lot of stores there. A lot of them. A good place to visit if anyone wants to ponder just how it is possible that people get sucked into spending so much more than they actually have. Speaking of which, we bought a whole bunch of new clothes. Macy's was having a sale. Hey, a man's gotta look good, right?
The visit was pretty decent. My mom watched the kid a lot which let me do what I like to do best: sleep in. When I wasn't sleeping I was doing something else I'm partial to: drinking beer. Also went to a hockey game (Capitals versus Leafs, Caps won of course, go Caps!), saw two movies - Slum Dog Millionaire and The Reader - both at this giant movie theatre on the edge of a fake lake built beside a weird fake town made up entirely of stores and restaurants (condos surround but do not intrude). Anyway, you get the idea.
So, while I was gone two articles popped up that mention my work - both in different languages. One appeared in La Presse (a Quebec paper) and one appeared in a Mexican newspaper. I posted the link to the La Presse article on Facebook and requested a translation of the article and promptly got two sent to me. I posted them to my FB page, so if you want to see them friend me. Today I posted the piece in Spanish, so hopefully someone either here or on FB will translate that one for me too!
Pic on JohnTV with the caption:
"This could be you. Would it be worth it?"
So the piece in French by Mario Roy is about pride and its spill over into pseudo-nonconformity ie. the idea that we are trying to be different just so we can proudly proclaim that we are different. It got me thinking about the roots of Peep Culture. Is it pride or insecurity that causes us to reveal so much about ourselves? It's probably a little of both.
While in DC I watched a bit too much cable on Dad's giant - and I do mean giant - recently acquired HD big screen tv. One of the shows consisted of Shocking Videos. They featured the work of Brian Bates, "Oklahoma's Video Vigilante" who takes great pride in videoing prostitutes and johns in the act and posting the ensuing footage to his website Johntv.com.
Obviously the fact that he does this, and that his videos are all over cable as well, is indicative of the rise of Peep - in which we derive entertainment from other people's 'real' lives. But there's something else here, the zeal with which Bates pursues his subjects, and the pride he takes when he is featured on TV. You can argue that the videos posted to YouTube via his website serve to advance his stated aim of battling prostitution in Oklahoma City, but when they are put on TV, they become entertainment, and the only thing they advance is his pride. (I should add here that at least one of the videos posted to YouTube from Johntv.com come with advertisments from YouTube that say: "Hookup With Sexy Asians.")
Here's a sample of the work of Brian Bates.
2009,
23:43 GMT
Idiotic Double Peep News of the Day: Mindless Puffery About Bristol Palin’s Ex Boyfriend
Posted by: Hal
I was going to do a high minded post today and claim that all week I’d be looking at different incarnations of Peep Art. But, well, how about we do that next week? In the meantime, how about some idiotic double Peep action? Remember we defined the double Peep here as the phenomenon by which the original Peep gets peeped by the media.
Good example on the Huffington Post today. And it comes with a poll! So here’s the title: “Levi Johnston’s Sister Mercede Tattoos His Name On Her Wrist…What Would You Do? (POLL, VIDEO)” The “piece” basically says that Levi Johnston (who you might remember as the dude who knocked up Sarah Palin’s daughter and got grandfatherly props from John McCain before being inevitably dumped by Sarah Palin’s daughter…and how do we know all this? Because we live in a Peep Culture!) so anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, Johnston, according to Huffington which has the video to prove it, was on the Tyra Banks show with his sister (who we care about because?) when the sister revealed she has her brother’s name tattooed on his wrist (which we care about because?).
Now observe how Huffington tries to take this meaningless bit of double Peep puffery and make it matter to us — they further extend the peep by turning it into a poll. Is Levi’s sister weird? YOU decide!
In this way, peep extends its pull and allure. Everything, ultimately, is all about how you feel and react. This isn’t about the Johnstons (who we care about because?): It’s about you! Part of why Peep culture is so enticing generally is exactly because of the way the it always seems to come back around to ways we can interject ourselves into the story by, yes, allowing ourselves to be Peeped. It’s all so scary and addictive.
So I’m going to run my own poll: Is a poll asking if Levi’s sister is weird weird? YOU decide!
2009,
14:03 GMT
Facebook is more like TV than We Want to Admit
Posted by: Hal
In the Peep book I argue that we are using things like social media and twitter and YouTube as entertainment, first and foremost. It’s a more immersive, interactive form of entertainment, but it’s still entertainment. As such I reject the argument that we’re becoming more social through social media. I also reject the supposition that our latest techno-fueled obsessive past-time is making us smarter or more knowledgeable about the word around us.
Slowly, empirical evidence is emerging to support my argument: Facebook is more like TV than it is like socializing or reading or learning.
Most notably, a recently released study out of Ohio State University that finds that, surprise surprise, college students who use Facebook have lower grades than kids who don’t. Here’s a decent news report on the study that tells you everything you need to know. Basic summary: 65% of Facebook users accessed their account daily, usually checking it several times. Meanwhile, those students who used Facebook had a “significantly” lower grade point average than those who did not use the site.
Why is that? Because this stuff is part of our shift from Pop to Peep culture. It’s still entertainment and distraction, not some newly evolved way to learn, connect and meaningfully interact. People, for better and for worse, social media is the new TV.
Daisy Jones, a college student in the UK, deactivated her account after realizing FaceBook was affecting her grades. According to the Ohio study, 79% of Facebook-using students believed the time they spent on the site had no impact on their work. Pic from the Times Online.
2009,
14:46 GMT
Peep is Recession Proof and Other Confessions from the Ranks of the Unemployed
Posted by: Hal
Peep is not only recession proof, like the movies and beer, it actually benefits from the recession. Here are the reasons why.
1) More time on social networks. We believe, rightly and wrongly and the jury is still out on this, that our social network can help us get a job. So, increasingly, the first thing we do when we get laid off is let everyone on FB, LinkedIn, etc. know ASAP, not to mention sending an array of Tweets and Text Messages to make sure everyone knows we are out there hunting for new employment. A recent article in the Orlando Sentinel starts: “Just minutes after she was laid off from her job earlier this month, Brittany Ward pulled out her cell phone and typed a short message. ‘Needs a job.’ Ward, a 23-year-old account manager at an Altamonte Springs marketing firm, hadn’t even told her family.” There’s a reason we’re sending tweets like there’s no tomorrow – because for a lot of us, there’s no tomorrow.
Here’s the aforementioned Brittany searching for a job via laptop.
2) Recession blogs! We have the time because we’re unemployed, we think getting our name out there is a good idea that might lead to a job offer (again, jury is out on that one) so we blog. Here are just some of the recession blogs I found. Pink Slips are the New Black, Laid off in NYC, Recently Laid Off, and Fired For Now etc. There’s even a recession cooking blog that has gone viral featuring the recipes of a 90 year old who survived the great depression. (Which, as far as I can tell, looks nothing like our current situation: Recession 09: I’m going to have to cut down on my Starbucks Skinny Mocha Latte until I get a new job. Great Depression: Can anyone spare a cup of coffee and a slice of stale bread? I haven’t eaten in a week.)
Much of this blog material is classic Peep. Here’s a little snippet from a post on Fired For Now about Mom telling her kids she’s been let go: “So when I lost my job, I felt a deep sense of shame in telling them the news. I felt like I had failed them. I wasn’t the parent they could be proud of. No child boasts about a parent who spends their days at home in sweat pants, on the phone and net in between reruns of Law and Order.”
3) Corporate Peep Predators. Yep, when the times are tough, the Peep predators are ready and waiting to take advantage of our misery. Ergo, Newsweek’s My Turn column is running a contest on Twitter: send them your “recession story” on Twitter and you’ll maybe win the right to actually publish an entire column in Newsweek about your misery. In the meantime, “All of the tweets will be streamed on Newsweek.com” for the general amusement of those with two much time on their hands, both in the office and lying around on the couch.
Still on the subject of weird and predatory and Peep-inspired, how about this news story about a coffee shop trying to entice people to keep spending their money on mocha lattes (see mini-rant above) by hiring only comely young ladies to serve the coffee in bikinis?
Meanwhile, the Dallas News reports gangbuster business at a stripper job fair in that hard hit city. Wow. The dead-pan article trumpeting the “jobless to topless” job fair makes it sound like stripping is basically the perfect solution for unemployed women with the appropriate skill set.
Finally, Fox has a new Reality TV show in the works (no word on air date yet) called Someone’s Gotta Go. The show pits employees against each other as small companies seek to down-size and the employees themselves have to decide who should get laid off. Thanks for making people losing their jobs fun Fox…and for proving once and for all that Peep is recession proof.
2009,
19:52 GMT
Peep Doc - Fact Versus Fiction in the Basement
Posted by: Hal
So the Peep documentary is starting to get into full swing. And things are starting to get…uh…interesting. Right now, the doc people are redoing my basement so I can move my office down there. My actual office on the second floor is too small to film in. Also they want something sleeker, more modern looking. So I’m going to have an entire wall blackboard and a glass desk that glows.
Of course we all know that in documentaries reality is manufactured, but it’s interesting to be part of it, and have an opportunity to chronicle the journey.
Another interesting fake-real thing: Sally Blake, one of the producers, has been worried about the chronology. You see, in the doc, we’re apparently going to pretend that I’m just now starting to explore peep culture. So she keeps trying to find things that I haven’t done yet. Sally: Do you have a webcam? Me: yes. Sally: Ah…too bad. They’re very excited that I don’t have a smart phone yet, key component of Peep (haven’t needed one because I never leave the house) so one of the first things they’ll be filming is me getting a smart phone next week.
It sucks when the truth gets in the way of the story. So we are going to massage the truth where necessary. Does it matter? Does it mean the the documentary will be ‘fake’?
Time will tell.
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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