Catfish

After watching the documentary “Catfish,” my perspective on Facebook, and social media in general shifted.  “Catfish’ is a documentary following Yaniv Schulman, and a few of his friends to meet his new “love interest” that he had been building a romantic relationship through Facebook.  This film revealed the harsh, scary and shocking reality of what goes on, over the Internet.  Web 2.0 has built a different world for people to live through and perhaps become someone they are not. Yaniv Schulman had to learn this the hard way when he began a romantic relationship with a girl named Megan, over Facebook.  He believed that this girl Megan was a stunning blonde who was around the same age.  After a road trip to go see Megan, Yaniv was struck with the disturbing truth of the situation.  He finds out that “Megan” that he had been talking to and falling for, happens to be a 40-year-old woman Angela, who had faked an identity over Facebook.  She not only made up a profile for a young girl “Megan,” she made up over 12 more profiles to build this alternate life, in order to escape her own.

            After Yaniv shows up for a surprise visit to Megan’s house and find out the truth behind this profile, he is shocked to say the least.  It is a hard situation to deal with.  Angela now tells Yaniv that she is battling cancer in an effort to make him feel bad for her.  She takes care of two mentally ill stepchildren and lives a sad, depressing life.  She used Facebook and Yaniv to leave this unhappy life and hide behind a computer screen to live a life of a young beautiful girl.  Instead of feeling violated, and becoming extremely angry with Angela, Yaniv tries his hardest to see past her disturbing behavior and learn about the “real” Angela.  Yaniv wanted to hear her out and learn the reasoning behind the 15 profiles that she had made, to upkeep this alternate life through Facebook and even a separate phone that she had used to text explicit messages to Yaniv.  He then began to feel for her and her situation.  The fact that her life was so unsatisfying, she turned to technology to meet and fulfill her needs of feeling wanted by others. 

            Personally, this story disturbs me.  I feel that what Angela did was nothing but disturbing and violating.  The fact that she was able to steal hundreds of photos of random people and creating this whole group of “friends” is what freaks me out the most.  The real Megan turned out to be a young woman, Aimee Gonzales.  Aimee was taken advantage of and her picture was exploited to thousands of people over Facebook as this “Megan” character.  Another hard thing to wrap my head around was that Angela was willing to lie about having cancer.  Such a disease affects so many lives negatively and for her to lie about having such a life threatening illness was baffling to me.  Her life must have been very unfulfilling for her to go through all of this trouble of making almost 15 different profiles and keeping up with each and every one.  This must have been very time consuming for her and she also had a young daughter and two special needs stepsons. 

            Throughout this course we have been educated about many ways Web 2.0 has an impact on our daily lives.  The evolution of the Internet had rapidly evolved into somewhat of an alternate reality.  Websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Myspace are all places people can go and potentially become someone they are not.  The Internet can be a scary place and the film Catfish just goes to show how potentially dangerous it can be.  Despite the fact that Yaniv did not get harmed or physically hurt, you could read it all over his face when he was speaking to Angela that he was emotionally torn down.  It was hard to think that he was going to meet this incredible girl that he had grown to develop feelings for, only to find out it was a 40 year old woman impersonator.

            There are some critics out there that are convinced that this documentary was completely staged.  They believe that this film was made to educate and show the viewers how the Internet can mask one’s identity.  Anyone could have been the victim and gotten their pictures stole and thrown into the whirlwind of Angela’s alternate life.  It could have been me.  That’s scary.  Whether or not everything is “fake” or “real” there had to have been scenes that were reenacted and the directors and makers of the movie fessed up to that.  They told the press that some of the screen shots were put in later but that doesn’t take away and credibility to the film.

            It is odd to me how people care so much if it is real or not.  It is a movie, and there for out entertainment.  I understand that some people may feel the need to know the “true” story, but why discredit those who made the film?  It was a very entertaining film and for all I know it is a true story and that is the creepy part about it.  Web 2.0 has allowed us to do things we would have never thought would be possible 50 years ago.  We now mainly communicate through technology.  Between Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Blogging, Myspace, and Texting, we really don’t even need to see anyone face to face.  We can see what our friends are doing Friday night at 9:07 just from visiting their Facebook page.  It is getting very intrusive as well.  Without realizing it, people are disclosing a lot of their personal information to websites such as Facebook and later on could become a privacy issue.  Facebook owns the rights to anything you put on your Facebook page.  Nowadays, people are losing jobs from one picture on their profile.  This new day and age has changed the way people communicate.

            With the Internet growing, more and more user generated content is taking over.  Andrew Keen has showed us how democratized media is eliminating the middle man.  There are not fact checkers anymore and now anything on the Internet could potentially not be reliable information.  With the ability to create your own websites and paste facts, pictures, information etc, it is hard to see the truth from the rest.  I believe this foreshadows our future.  It is only going to get harder for us to see past all the smog and impersonators on the Internet.  It will only get harder for us to see what is true and what to ignore.  We need to take the lesson within Catfish and learn from it.   

                         

Exit Through The Gift Shop

“Exit Through The Gift Shop” is a documentary following the evolution and impact of graffiti through the eyes of an amateur filmmaker, Thierry Guetta.  He began by wanting to meet someone he idolized, Banksy, a famous street artist known around the world by his eclectic, extreme and even controversial pieces.  Guetta started out following Banksy around while he created his pieces.  Catching the process of creating street art was Guetta’s goal and he ended up traveling the world with Banksy and accumulating a lot of footage.  After Banksy, many other street artists agreed to participate in Guetta’s documentary.  These street artists included other well known graffiti artisits, Shepard Fairey and Invader.  After Guetta accumulates a lot of film, Banksy convinces him to attempt to put everything together and make a movie.  This is a fail; the final product is very choppy and seems as if the viewer keeps changing the channel every 7 seconds.  There is no story line or fluidity to it.  Once Guetta realizes this project is a fail, the camera is flipped on him and Banksy begins to film Thierry’s journey or evolving into a street artist himself.  Thierry then names himself Mr. Brainwash as his “tag.”  The film ends up evolving into something completely different than what Guetta set out for it to turn into. 

            Thierry Guetta’s work seemed to me to be far from original.  I had not seen one piece that was original, or even straight from Guetta’s creative mind.  It made me question even if he was a creative person.  He was unable to put together the simplest of film footage to tell a story of the infamous Banksy and how he went about creating his work.  Weather it was taking the famous piece of art work American Gothic and putting gas masks on the famous painting, or simply using Andy Warhol’s signature style only manipulating someone else’s face with different, crazy colors.  Along with his lack of originality, it also seems as if Guetta does not even do much of his work.  He had hired a team of people to bring a lot of his work to life.  He may have been hands on with some of his projects, but he also seemed to not care about being open about the fact that his team did mostly everything for him.  Without a lot of his workers, it seemed as if his first art show would not have happened.  It seems very hypocritical because to be a “street artist” you need to be very original and creative and then he aspires to be a big, famous artist yet he does not do any of the work himself.

            After reading two of the articles that had seemed to believe that the whole movie must be a spoof and really all of the “actors” are trying to relay a message regarding originality within street art.  If some of those speculations are true, it makes more sense then the actual movie does.  If Banksy is really “Thierry Guetta” it would make sense because all he wants people to take from the movie is to see the unoriginality of all of Guetta’s pieces of work.  Street art is not easy, it is an expression of one’s emotions, beliefs or interests but it does take some creativeness and all Guetta did in the film, was take commercialized art pieces, that are already famous, and tweaked them or simply splattered paint on top of these printed images and put them all around his gallery.  

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The Great Seduction By: Andrew Keen

Q1:  Andrew Keen defines "democratized media" as the was people are always connected to the Internet, and how Web 2.0 would democratize media, business' and even the Government.  Keen originally was very involved with wanting to expand the music world through the Internet.  Once everyone had access to the Internet and people began being able to share their own non-professional, self-made music.  Keen hated this because he believed it belittled expertise, experience and talent.  To "disintermediate" it is the act of doing away with all the professional levels to go through in order to have a professional blog, movie reviews, any sort of talents, etc.      
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHH3Rqjnj38

Q2:  I believe Andrew Keen and Douglass Rushkoff have similar, yet different views on Web 2.0.  Keen has a very negative, pessimistic outlook on how the Internet has evolved and how it basically rules our lives right now.  Rushkoff also believes our lives revolve too much around the Internet yet he does more research in how and why the Internet has become what it is today.  Rushkoff is able to at least wrap his head around the fact that the Internet is still evolving and a lot of what we do in our everyday lives from blogging, to chatting, to business meetings surround the use of the Internet.  At least Rushkoff is accepting of this phenomenon, whereas Keen feels because of all of the amateurs on the Internet, there are no experienced professionals in any given field.  He especially does not like the fact that websites such as Pandora, used for listening to music, can predict what type of music you would like to listen to based on what you are currently listening to.  Because Keen is so into the sharing and spreading of music, he thinks that "artificial intelligence" is not as accurate as taste.    

Blogs I commented on

I commented on Eric Johansen's blog and Mike Florio's blog.  My longer comment was on Corey March's blog.

Whither the Individual?

Whither the Individual?

As we join groups and social networks from affinity sites to Facebook, are we extending and expanding  identities, or increasingly conforming to the cookie-cutter profiles demanded of these interfaces? Is the loss of "personal space" and "reflection" so many users complain of merely the necessary surrender of "ego" as we learn to participate as members of a more evolved "collective organism" of "hyper-people?"

As many people know, Facebook is the most popular social networking site available right now.  With over 500 million users Facebook has taken place of Myspace and AIM.  Even though some people say that social media sites make people conform to the “cookie-cutter” profile, I do not agree with that.  I believe that people are actually doing the opposite.  The Internet is medium, which allows users to say and do whatever they want.  It allows people to expand on their identities weather or not they are telling the truth about who they are or what they like.  I suppose in a way this can be conforming to a certain type of profile if someone may be posting interests that they believe are “cool” when in fact that it not their personality at all.

         In the documentary “Digital Nation”, David Rushkoff and Rachel Dreztin explore different types of media sites such as Second Life, Facebook and Youtube.  They are investigating to see weather or not these sites are forcing their users to conform, or be themselves.  On a site such as Second Life, people certainly are experimenting with different personalities.  People even have Second Life husbands and wives, which is where the use of the Internet gets very odd.  Even though Second Life’s purpose was to increase intimacy over the Internet, people take their experimenting of different personalities very far.  People use their Avatars to become someone they may not be comfortable with being in the real world. 

            

         Even though profiles on Facebook may all have the same layouts, each individual has a chance to customize their own profile by adding pictures, comments, statuses and more.  We all know that most of the population is “addicted” to Facebook or even Myspace and Twitter but Facebook is amongst the most popular social media site in the world.  People use Facebook for their own personal reasons.  One person may have no reason to lie on their profile about their interests whereas someone else may have many different profiles all with different personalities.  I do not think that this is Facebook’s fault.  Facebook certainly does not make anyone conform to the “cookie-cutter” profile at all, in fact the amount of freedom a lot of the social networking sites gives you, you can do anything you would like with your profiles, without any limits.

               

         This concept of “withering” the individual I believe to be not true.  In fact, people are about to expand on their existing identity.  Those who complain about the loss of “personal-space” would depend on what they are entering into their profiles.  You chose what goes on your profile and you have to be smart enough to not put anything on it that may be invading to your privacy.  Anything and everything pertaining to the Internet should be known that is out for the world to see.  People should understand that whatever they put on the Internet is public and always will be.              

Social Media and Web 2.0

1.  I do not think that this new "user-generated" televisions shows or advertisements will continue for much longer.  If they do the amount of them will not increase.  I personally would not be able to watch every movie or t.v show I watch in that sort of recording style. It may be personal preference but a commercial here and there is alright but I do not think it will catch on to every t.v show or movie.
2.  The obvious social media site that i find myself on the most is Facebook.  Facebook has really changed the way our generation communicates and shares information.  Facebook is the most successful media site because they were able to take all the different media sites such as yahoo, flickr, twitter and much more and put it all in one.  You are able to send messages which are similar to emails, share photos, share statuses and instant message all on one site.  Why should we use 4 different sites to do all of this when we can use Facebook to do it all?  Facebook also took on the ability to share music which is what Myspace is used for now.  I think myspace was outed by Facebook for that exact reason.  Facebook is also a lot more simple where as Myspace was more for a "homepage" where you can personalize it.  I don't see Facebook going anywhere because of all it has to offer.  I also use Twitter to follow celebrities I am interested in or even some stores who promote sales and coupons through their Twitter accounts.  I have always been against putting up a status on Facebook, for some reason, but that is all Twitter really is.  I feel Twitter is a more appropriate place to add status' because that is the sole purpose for Twitter.  Sometimes I get annoyed with people's status' on Facebook, because in a way, I don't care.  I don't go on Facebook to see what everyone is doing that second, I like to stay connected with my friends who go to school far away and share pictures but to know what people are doing every second gets very obnoxious.
3.  The concept of transparency is a fuzzy issue.  Receiving money to tweet or blog is where the complications come in.  Your accountability or credibility over a certain subject will lessen if you were to be getting paid to tweet something nice about a certain company or product etc.  I do not fully grasp the concept of transparency yet, but will add my personal ideas after researching more in depth.

For my project, I chose Flickr as my medium.  Flickr is a application available to anyone who has the internet to organize and share any or all of their personal photos.  Flickr is a easy way for families and friends to share photos and stay tuned in to their loved one's lives while not being there in person.  My project portrays "flickr" as a medium to help families stay together through the holidays if they are not able to actually be together in person.  A lot of families are unable to be together for each and every holiday and flickr is such a great application that people can "be there" with their families for each holiday.  

The content of flickr would be digital photographs, text, html links possibly to bring people to the individual's personal homepage or blog.  The message of flickr that McLuhan might say would be the ability to immediately share photos, and the ability to share experiences with people who are far away.  The concept of flickr is a great application that allows anyone to stay updated on what their loved ones are doing and be able to visually see the products of their experiences. 

New Mediums

Foursquare is a new Medium that was introduced to public not too long ago.  The content of Foursquare is pictures, text, maps, gps locations, and html links.  The message of Foursquare is, in my opinion, that everyone has instant communication to their friends.  The main message of Foursquare would be the gps locations and the "check-ins" that take place on Foursquare.  Friends can see where you "checked in" at and then they would know where you are at that moment.  Another purpose of Foursquare is to advertise.  Foursquare is used to advertise stores and sales and users of Foursquare get additional treatment because they are a part of the Foursquare network.

Skype and even more amazing, SkypeMobile, is an amazing medium we use to keep in touch with our loved ones while away.  The content would be digital video, text, html links, and digital photography because of the messaging feature within Skype.  The message would also be instant communication.  This is as close as you can get to person to person communication without actually being there with the person. This does not necessarily eliminate the use of phones because usually Skype would be used somewhat sporadically.  It just allows people to communicate with people far away and is really the only Medium that allows people to have real-time chat with someone far away.

Facetime is becoming big as iPhones and other Smartphones are coming out with this feature.  The content of Facetime would be real time digital video and audio.  It is similar to SkypeMobile but this is a feature that is integrated into the Smartphone so it is just like having a computer right in your hand.  The message would again be instant communication but, similar to Skype it is to see and hear people you may not have a chance to see for a while.  It has definitely increased the time spent on phones because instead of being on a computer to Skype, people are able to Facetime each other straight from their phones.  Some people may use it instead of a phone call or text to show a friend something because you can show them through video instead of a picture and they do not need to wait for a response they will instantly be able to get feedback.