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Youtube
2008,
13:52 GMT
Looking for the Lurkers
Posted by: Hal
Hi everyone, a journalist/researcher in New York asked me to post this. If you're a lurker, help her out!
Do you spend a lot of time following blogs and twitters of people you don't know? Do you watch but don't participate? Do you find interest or comfort in people's daily routines? Are you familiar with JenniCAM, Justin.tv, or iJustine? I'm a reporter looking to speak with nonparticipatory, anonymous online users. Email me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) if this sounds like you.
2008,
17:58 GMT
Overshare is New Word of the Year
Posted by: Hal
Hey everyone, I just found out - while having a pitch be turned down by a magazine editor - that "overshare" has been named word of the year by Webster's.
As they write:
overshare (verb): to divulge excessive personal information, as in a blog or broadcast interview, prompting reactions ranging from alarmed discomfort to approval.
Wow! Peep culture now has an offical verb! Below is the video Webster's released on YouTube and elsewhere in an attempt to overshare their selection of overshare as the word of the year.
2008,
19:17 GMT
Peep Culture Music Video
Posted by: Hal
Hello everyone...been meaning to post this for a while now. It's a music video made up exclusively of Facebook clips. It's great, and so is the song. So check it out. Dance Dance Revolutions Co. / Tomboyfriend's End of Poverty
Hal.
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,
18:19 GMT
Peep Videos Versus Justice
Posted by: Hal
A fascinating story yesterday in the New York Times directly related to Peep. Supreme Court Enters the YouTube Era is the headline. Basically it describes several situations where video evidence is found to be more compelling than any other kind of testimony, particularly spoken recollections. We see this again with the Robert Dziekanski panel going on right now to determine why the RCMP tasered the Polish man, coming to move in with his mother, 5 times, effectively killing him. In that case, amateur video shot by an airport bystander named Paul Pritchard seems to be contradicting the vast majority of what the RCMP officers are testifying.
In the age of Peep, just about everything that happens in public is going to be recorded by someone. In many cases, these videos will end up contradicting official reports of what happened. In many cases, as the New York Times article makes clear, video "evidence" will be privileged automatically over other kinds of testimony, simply because video is far more visceral and dynamic than any other kind of testimony that could be offered. The problem, of course, is that video doesn't always tell the story of what really happened. We're conditioned to believe video, and video incites us to rash and immediate judgments.
The other problem is that video clips of shocking events inevitably become part of Peep culture -- they are entertainment even as they are evidence. They end up on Youtube and are watched by thousands, commented on, and generally enjoyed. Which makes me feel, sometimes, as if we'd all be better off if there were no videos of these events, even the lack of video evidence may prevent justice for obvious victims like Robert Dziekanski and the piteous man in the video below who is tasered because he's too distraught and confused to get up off the ground where he's sitting slumped and handcuffed.
Conventional wisdom is that monitoring videos are a vital tool, an increasingly useful check on power. At the same time, even as they introduce their evidence, they effect society in ways we don't really understand yet.
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...
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