.authored by something.of.substance.
I almost never watch / visit youtube. I can’t. Every time I go to search for a commercial I just “have to see” or want to find the British lion video everyone has been raving about, I find myself, instead, panning through an onslaught of cell phone captured home videos about nothing. And, when I say “nothing”, I certainly mean it.
The web is crawling with everyone’s life- gone viral. In this new age of exhibitionism, privacy is antiquated and reality is all too “real”. With the ever expanding age of technology calling for constant and immediate gratification, the patience to simply live one’s life has gone out the window. We need to be noticed and we don’t care how that happens.
Social networking sites such as Facebook.com and Myspace.com cannot be quickly dismissed as the downfall of propriety in civilization. I find them to be excellent resources in maintaining contact with those college friends whom are scattered all over the world or as a means of keeping up, efficiently, with everyone in my life. Yet, I still value a certain level of anonymity; I refuse to put my life on display.
Sadly, I am in the minority. No longer are any moments considered too private, any situations considered too taboo, or any thoughts considered not necessary for world-wide publication. And, somewhere in all of this “sharing” of ourselves, we have lost any true experience. Authenticity no longer exists in the viral reality my generation is hoping will propel them to instant “fame”.
But, what kind of fame are we hoping to achieve? Growing up, I was a lover of biographies. I spent endless hours in the library reading the stories of those people who contributed to society in some recognizable and, often, helpful fashion. Amelia Earhart, Mark Twain, Susan B. Anthony, Ludwig van Beethoven, Malcolm X were all my idols for their ideals, their determination, and their fortitude. These days the most oft listed role models of young women include Paris Hilton, (formerly) Britney Spears and Jenna Jameson. A socialite famous for partying with her parents money, a former pop princess famous for being half-naked on stage and dating Justin Timberlake and a porn star. Young men list rappers, trust fund “thugs” and conflicted sports stars as their heroes of the moment. This is what we are aspiring to be.
And, it shows. My generation is one of complete phoniness. Everything is scripted, filmed and broadcast. Everything is knowingly on display. Moreover, there is nothing left that is authentic or real. Nothing is original.
Take, for example, “reaction videos”. I refuse to enumerate the disgusting websites that prompt these videos, but I’ll do my best to explain their presence nonetheless. Certain websites feature men and women or sometimes just women putting every type of bodily secretion in every possible orifice in each other and engaging in sexual acts with said secretions and said orifices. Please don’t think this an exaggeration: when I say EVERY possible secretion and EVERY possible orifice, I mean just that and then some you would never have considered possible. The popular pastime these days is to hear of one of these abominations, click on the website and have yourself or your friend videotape you watching it for the first time, hence the term “reaction”. After your typical looks of shock, awe, disgust, and “what the fuck?!”, you then broadcast your reaction from your personal pages, on youtube, in e-mails, etc.
There is nothing individual in this experience. First of all, millions of users are freely seeking out depravity in order to display that they haven’t been so jaded as to not be affected by it. Yet, these reactions aren’t real. The makers of these reaction videos are always aware of the presence of the camera and so display emotions appropriate to the situation. They are hoping to showcase “real reactions” in a false pretense.
Speaking of false pretenses, online photo albums are also the place to put your entire life on display. No longer can anyone walk down the street without having forty photos (complete with captions!) to mediate their experience. Personally, I have some friends with 1000+ photos linked to themselves online. There is nothing they have done in the last two years that hasn’t been captured on film. The mystery and mystique of a person is long since gone. While I believe that the increase in digital cameras and camera phones does preserve some truly great moments for reciprocity, it’s hard to think that filming every aspect of one’s life and putting it on display to be commented on by others is in any way a “real” experience. Looking through endless party albums, the only authenticity I see anymore is those people in the background of the shots, not aware they are being captured, looking very out of place.
Why do this? Why put every mundane moment of one’s life out in a worldwide forum? In talking with my friend Andrea last night, she said that she believes everyone is looking for two things in life: security and significance. A lifelong insomniac, I spent half the night awake pondering this statement. There certainly can’t be much security in exposing yourself to millions. Then, it dawned on me: the security was gained in knowing that your life looked just like everyone else’s. Your reactions were not unusual. Your habits were conformist. You were unoriginal.
This revelation certainly doesn’t jive with the need for significance garnered from these postings. If people post, as I believe my generation does, in order to gain some kind of notoriety and to be noticed (and therefore significant) for something, why go about it by proving you are the same as everyone else? After looking at everyone else’s life and following suit with yours, what impact are you necessarily making?
When I think about those biographies I used to read as a child, I think about how these people were truly rebels with a cause. They became famous (or infamous as the case is with some) for being individuals. They earned their notoriety by accomplishing something that moved society in one direction or another. They did not start out with the intention of becoming famous for being the same. I’m not sure it works that way.
I wish we could go back to the days when our thoughts, ideas or inventive actions brought us praise and recognition. I want to get to know someone by talking to them rather than seeing their entire existence laid out in front of me for my approval or disapproval. I long to have more experiences that are “real” and not simply there to be broadcast as “reality”. And, if this means I’m in the uncomfortable minority, then I’ll be happy to stay there, unnoticed.
Some of this goes back to the insecurities that we all posses. We are afraid to break away from the mold, we are afraid that we will be cast aside as a reject, or as being to different. Because of this people follow their friends and must try and document every aspect of their life, and keep people informed of their every move through things such as their status on facebook. People go and look at these pages thinking that through the online contact they are “friends” with all of these people. I believe that this just goes back to the laziness that our generation has developed with the assistance of technology. Why go out and meet people face to face when you can look at the pictures they took last night?