How is the online age making us more narcissistic?

• We are 'performance artists'. Our identity is the source of constant fascination from media producers who seek to find out what we want and will buy or 'buy into'.

• As our world is so image-conscious, many of us are now automatically aware of how to react to a video camera without learning 'video presentation skills'. This has the negative effect of making us 'hyper-aware' so that we will often behave as we are expected to as opposed to how we naturally feel. Therefore, a media event will be accompanied by the best reaction we can think of that accompanies our made-up identity.

• There is a blurring of the real and unreal. As an event such as 9/11 was prefigured by lots of disaster movies that saw major American landmarks destroyed in 90s disaster movies such as 'Independence Day', this made the actual footage of 9/11 quite a surreal event. This meant that people felt that they were actually part of a movie and could not figure out how to react due to the sheer 'movie-like' feelings that it inspired.

• Even children's literature is affected. Whereas early children's books such as 'Treasure Island' were adult's versions of an exciting story, books soon made children their leading stars as early as 'Peter Pan' and we learned a little more about what it was like to be a child. With the likes of 'Harry Potter' this understanding runs right through the book with popular references to other generation's childhood such as 'The Railway Children' and the 'Narnia' books.

• 'Hyper-reality' makes a number of strange things possible such as feeling nostalgic for an age we haven't lived through. As music from previous decades and TV programmes that reconstruct those times are now commonplace, this creates a strange sense of 'dislocation' from our current age.

• Whereas once, ages and decades would have been distinct and had their own character, now the freedom of information and 'access to everything' makes culture an 'indistinguishable blob' of all sorts of things brought together. Nothing seems to unify all of these many parts.

According to Zengotita, expressions such as the overuse of the word 'like' connote how we are unable to express anything original and we instead resort to referring to something else. He also comments on the way we are so unimpressed by wonderful imagery now and claims that “in the midst of a fabulous array of historically unprecedented and utterly mind-boggling stimuli ... whatever.” - Thomas de Zengotita

The Internet

Through forums people with similar opinions and ideas can join together and they don’t need to be in the same area as them they can contact them from anywhere in the world. Fmttm

Through the technologies that can turn the bank system invalid and cripple countries. For example Russian teenagers stopped an European country from using their online systems.

No one can make the internet secure because they don’t have control over it. For example anyone could break and damager certain links and get secret information from governments. Wikileaks an example of a group getting information and putting it on the internet which could started war between countries when they showed information on the Saudis wanting America to bomb a country.

A common person can become a celebrity on the Internet by youtube. For example the homeless man with a radio voice who was on youtube and became famous leading him to actually getting a job on a famous American radio channel.

how is watching youtube different to watching tv?

youtube and TV similarities
video
can show tv programs that are dubbed down and changed to fit youtube
can show films
show most videos

youtube differences
more personal
more opinionated
can write comments about the video that the creator will see
can use less 'pc' terminology and ideas
focuses on a certain genre and audience
more interactive
easier to access
advertisements surrounding youtube
free to produce
easier to produce


TV differences
More commercial
shows advertisement breaks
more of a larger audience
shows different genres
more controlled
more 'pc'
censored
costs to produce

Viral Video Presentation

Main Points- taken from http://boyeseysblog.blogspot.com/

• Capitalises on proliferation (of technology)
• Uses the consumers to promote so that it is peer-to-peer marketing that is, to some extent, invisible to the consumer.
• Can capitalise on references to or themes within a movie as appetisers that ‘prepare a market’ for the content
• Can adopt slogans that are spread around and create curiosity before delivering the final source e.g. The Dark Knight
• Original viral videos contained some small reference to the product even though the video itself was ‘just a cool vid’ e.g. ‘My dad’s got restless legs’
• This phenomenon is related to ‘word-of-mouth’ advertising, ‘buzz marketing’ and ‘stealth marketing’ and can be used to create a perfect storm (see Obama’s campaign ad)
• Popular phrases that are ‘user-generated’ by the consumers are popularised by marketing forces and used to sell e.g. Dancing Baby’s “All you base are belong to us”.
• They often violate copyright laws through their very nature as they use trademarks, symbols, characters, ideas and put them into new contexts whether as mash-ups or in some other form.
• ‘Hyper-real’ cinematic styles capitalise on the success of viral videos by making themselves appear amateurish (and therefore genuine) to some degree.
• Can be used in positive ways to raise awareness about issues e.g. District 9’s ‘humans only’ phone-boxes’ called to mind the racism of old South Africa in segregating 'the whites and the blacks'.

Commercialization and Authenticity
Taken from http://boyeseysblog.blogspot.com/

Test the statement: We express commercialization but we value authenticity.

Two points can help to express this:

• One is that a report was published last year that concluded that schoolchildren in the US know up to 1000 company logos but don’t know as much as 10 of their own native flora (plants).

• The second is that, with the arrival of electronic imaging and digital technology, it is possible for almost anything to be copied and that often the copy is better than the fake. This gives rise to the idea of a simulacra (a copy of something that does not exist), meaning that the copy is something that we have known has existed all along but that we have not expressed it sufficiently yet.

How does youtube and the online age help to express this point of Wesch's theory?
Youtube and the online age express the point of Weschs theory because of the freedom of speech and ideas on youtube and online, Wesch proves that the idea of the new online age is that anyone anywhere no matter what interest or ideas they have they can find someone with the same ideas on their certain subject. Also that his idea of how you truly do not know who you are talking to on chat sites. And that on youtube the opinions the speaker is expressing could be dubbed and change which is a negative. However it shows that the online age has added a level of freedom of speech and the idea of individualism in the certain people on their ideas because they can truly express their opinions.

Research Possibilities

· Consider how authenticity came to be so valued - is it now a rare commodity? How do commercial media products express this renewed desire for authenticity?

· Debate how vlogging on youtube can be seen as more authentic than other forms of social networking.

· Consider how hyper-reality affects the way that we behave i.e. we are so aware of the media that we automatically assume the manner of presenters and TV celebrities.

· Debate whether mash-ups are a tribute or a menace? Do some mash-ups actually come across as more authentic than the originals?

· Try to find out how many youtube videos are inspired by actual media products compared to those that are trends derived from the community.

· Is youtube special in that it allows us to be ‘prosumers’ more so than ever? What examples can you find of ‘prosumers’ on youtube?

· Youtube has been described as a ‘meta-business’ (meaning there is no ‘physical product’). Does this add to or reduce its authenticity?

· Do you think the only way of defining youtube’s effect on people is by looking at how it is used?

· Even though youtube has been described as giving rise to ‘vernacular creativity’, is it just going to be exploited by being ‘tapped into’ and used by business? Can youtube ever escape commercialisation? In order to escape it, must it forever evolve into new forms?

· The cinema business has recently found a renewed interest in realism. What methods make sure that some movies appear real to us?

· Seek out definitions of hyper-reality. Discuss how something can seen to be “more real than reality.”

· Does youtube help to democratise the internet by giving people room to express themselves and thereby gain more power?

· Explore how big an impact that user generated content has had on commercial businesses and how active modern audiences are. This has been defined by the theorist Tim O’Reilly as a ‘bottom up’ strategy.

Indepedance and Relationships

With the internet they can be certain cults and specialist groups that people can join. For cults a websites called suicide girls where people in japan can join and kill themselves at the same time. For specialist groups people who like a certain subject like the TV show The Pacific where someone who likes it and doesn't know anyone who likes it they could go on the internet and find people to talk about it too. Also websites like facebook can bring people together from all over the world to contact and create special internet relationships which websites like myspace and Facebook can do. Also when you have websites like blogger and tumblr which allow you to blog your thoughts and ideas which people can look at and read it brings the world together in one community of information and friendship. Also some people believe it is easier to be closer to someone on the internet where you have always have a way of connecting to the person. However without people on the online media are very important, if many people did not use the internet for social network like facebook and youtube it would become less effective and people would not have the full freedom to contact their friends which will lose the personal effect in which it does have with a large amount of people using the social network system. we express commercialism but value authenticity

Testing Cultural Inversion

Individualism and community

What does the word 'community' mean to you?

• People joined together
• a group of people
• friends or family
• politicians use it to focus on a group of people from a certain place
• government
  
• community service
• reputation of which community you are from.

Name any ‘online communities’ that either you or another is a part of;

1. Facebook
2. blogger
3. youtube
4. twitter
5. tumblr

Examine the different types of community members and compare one of your own online communities with youtube’s. Try to find out the similarities and differences between the two and any other ideas about ‘individualism’ and ‘community’
http://www.crackunit.com/2007/04/25/is-youtube-really-a-community/

• youtube- spoken word and you can guarantee the authenticity of the speaker. However with youtube it could be dubbed over and the issues and ideas the speaker is presented could be changed and faulted. Members of youtube are usually confident about their ideas they are presenting and in which they want to support their points with their opinions. With youtube anyone can view your video and as long as they have a youtube account they can comment on the video discussing your issues.
  

• Facebook- with facebook you cannot guarantee the authenticity of the people on there, however what they say or write is authentic because it cannot be changed. It can be changed however if the account is hacked by another person who can express other ideas that do not belong to the person. The members of facebook not necessarily want to express any of their ideas but they want to be part of a community or have a place to talk to friends at anytime or place. Also with Facebook you can control who visits your profile and look at your pictures. By the use of friends on there where you can add people you may or may not know and then you will be able to access them.