Catfish

Do I think it was staged – no.  I find it hard to believe that three artistic young men dreamt up a movie about Facebook romances featuring only themselves, and one other really great character, who would agree to work for free for about a year to provide them with the desired content. Even though they are notably savvy New Yorkers, is it possible that they trolled the internet with carefully crafted bait in order to hook a middle aged diagnosed schizophrenic posing as fifteen other people,  and then cried a collective “Thar she blows? “ I think not.

Is it impossible that a good-looking young man living in the big city could find himself unfulfilled by the offerings of the countless flirty-eyed young ladies who no doubt pursued him while worked as a photographer? That he could have happened onto a relationship with someone who was notably attractive and shared his passion for the creative arts although she lived hundreds of miles away? Why would he be labeled as creepy because he responded to an eight-year-old's message, through her mother, asking for permission to paint one of his photographs?

As I watched this movie with my boyfriend, and  began to realize that Megan had lied about her music among other things, we were shocked and angry with her. But as the story unfolded we sat in awe of the elaborate fabrications neatly woven by Angela. After a glimpse of Angel’s real life, I was filled more with pity than disdain; even Nev appeared to be a vessel of unending grace. 

 Watching with my classmates I observed the general consensus was that Angela was just another psycho while Nev came under attach for being pathetic because he had become so attached to someone that he knew online only.

I believe that anyone who views this movie does so from their own personal vantage point.  If you have ever been desperately lonely, for any reason, you can easily empathize with Nev. If disillusioned with your life, you may better understand Angela’s plight.  We are all human beings with much to learn, and usually do so by being exposed to something or someone different. Whether you loved or hated Angela, certainly you learned something from this catfish.

               

A Statement on MySpace and Social Media Users.

MySpace seems to be aiming hard at a bullseye, but consistently missing the target entirely. This social media platform has failed to capture the affinity of the world’s mainstream audience so it has now focused its attention on a “fanatic” target market. While MySpace claims to offer more profile customization to their users than Facebook, I have been impressed only by the lack of technical functionality by this product. If MySpace were to tackle its obvious technical difficulties, it could possibly become a useful online gathering place for those who are more individualistic than the drones that bow to their God - Facebook.

Social networks, when fully functional, have obvious value to most of us as we use it to “meet” new people and connect with those we already know. We freely share information about our daily activities and whereabouts. Law enforcement officers value this type of self-posted data as it presents a fertile field of information where perpetrators unwittingly divulge their guilt. Fifty years ago, criminals' mouths got them into trouble. Now, criminals brag on MySpace or Twitter, which likewise gets them into trouble (Marsico, Jr. 972). Police officers routinely use social networking sites to investigate crimes and those suspected of committing crimes (Marsico, Jr. 968). Facebook owners realized that criminals would use their site and in fact, Facebook has a law enforcement guide that was prepared exclusively for police officers (Marsico, Jr. 971). 

Not only are there officers patrolling the internet but criminals also have found a way to turn the tables on their enemies. “Photographs of undercover officers are being posted” (Marsico, Jr. 971) so that cohorts may be on the look out for imposters in their midst. I would think that the probability of an undercover officer being recognized has increased greatly due to this particular use of social networking.

The previous two issues are caused by the user’s true identity being revealed. There is a whole other world of devious behavior going on when a user chooses to create a false identity. Most of us are familiar with the mother in Missouri that taunted an adversary of her daughter using a fake MySpace account. Tragically this interaction ended with the thirteen year old victim committing suicide.

The internet is full of links where people admit creating a false account on Facebook or MySpace to spy on or take revenge on a targeted person. Posts like this one from “missbeezie, All I did was call her fat from a fake myspace guy cause I knew that would piss her off. Am I really breaking a bunch of laws here?????.” When I attended the Hot Topic discussion a couple of weeks ago in the Ferguson Center, several students freely admitted that they had created false accounts in the past for a variety of reasons. 

Where does it end? Online social media knowingly and unknowingly hosts users who are representing themselves accurately, as they wish they were but with some hint of truth, as someone entirely imaginary with no link to reality and as the person they believe you might trust just enough to put yourself in danger.  USER BEWARE!

Works Cited

Marsico, Jr., Edward M. "Social Networking Websites: Are MySpace and Facebook the Fingerprints of the Twenty-First Century?." Widener Law Journal. 19. (2010): 972. Print.

--- "Social Networking Websites: Are MySpace and Facebook the Fingerprints of the Twenty-First Century?." Widener Law Journal. 19. (2010): 968. Print.

--- "Social Networking Websites: Are MySpace and Facebook the Fingerprints of the Twenty-First Century?." Widener Law Journal. 19. (2010): 971. Print.

--- "Social Networking Websites: Are MySpace and Facebook the Fingerprints of the Twenty-First Century?." Widener Law Journal. 19. (2010): 971. Print.

Missbeezie, . "Fake MySpace Account." 04/19/2008. Online Posting to Defamation, Slander and Libel. Web. 20 Feb 2011.

What do homo interneticus and catfish have in common?

What do you think of when I say Catfish? If you have seen the movie entitled Catfish, you may already have a knowing grin taking over your face. It’s not until the end of the movie that one of the characters reveals the link between this notorious bottom feeder and the title of the movie, so don’t waste your time trying to put that piece of the puzzle together while your brain is already straining to figure out what to do with all the other misshapen pieces being thrown down around you.  Kudos to the young men who decided to film their brother/college roommate as he navigated an interesting online relationship and to Nev for allowing them to continue to film as the relationship developed. Everyone that utilizes social media or studies those who do, should watch this movie. 

Check out the trailer and get hooked!

Not MY space!

Oh my goodness! What is up with Myspace or “My l____l” as it prefers to be known as now. The video introduction states that this site is for “fanatics” where “Music is core to us”, a place where you can “really represent.”  I was immediately struck by the numerous Enquirer-like images on the homepage; it was scandalous!

Only because I needed to do research for this class did I click on one of the many menu options. What's trending in music seemed safe enough and the video I selected was fine, but as soon as that video finished another group of videos were suggested to me. Without exception, the photo icons representing the videos were of women wearing little or nothing, in sexually suggestive poses. This happened not once but several times over, that was enough firsthand exposure to the tour of the new Myspace for me.  The wiki on Myspace reads like a Hollywood tabloid, it is no wonder that it is based out of Beverly Hills. In 2006 PC World rated Myspace the #1 worst web site ever due to several factors; however,  all changes considered, I would gladly give it the same rating in 2011.

 

The Virtual Revolution

After watching ten YouTube videos and taking sixteen pages of notes on the virtual revolution, I am having trouble limiting my post to the assigned word count, but here goes…

Although we pay a bill for internet access, we do not monetarily pay for the World Wide Web itself. We do however pay by becoming a commodity to business all around the world. We are being “Traced, Tracked and Traded in pursuit of profit.” (Episode 3, part 1, 1:57) Our every digital step is being archived by Google in one or several of its massive data centers positioned around the United States, netting this company $200 every second at the time of taping for episode 3 of The Virtual Revolution. (Episode 3, part 2, 8:51) Google was developed to help the average user make sense of the internet by assisting one to locate quickly a quality web page rather than sorting through possibly thousands of underdeveloped sites to find one that is reasonably appointed. (Episode 3, part 2, 7:37) Google even scans our emails for key words to better decipher our consumer tendencies. (Episode 3, part 4, 1:50) We are consumers that are being consumed. (Episode3, part 4, 5:53)

Social Media vs. Real Life

Last Tuesday evening I attended one of the Ferg's Hot Topics discussions and learned a ton. Not so much from the great Socialnomics video presented, but more from the audience. What I learned was not a string of startling facts about the pervasive use of social media, (Dr. R taught me that), but I did see first hand the that the students attending were very naive in their perception of the world wide web.

Only eighteen students attended which was surprising to the organizers and myself. With social media the #1 pastime for most all currently enrolled college students, we all thought that attendance would set records.There are over half a billion users of facebook now, and on a campus of over 30,000 one would think that at least a third or more are actively using this one form of social media so how many should we have expected? 

Actually, this kind of apathy towards thinking about one's use of facebook and its affect on our lives is totally typical. Even more shocking is the belief expressed by attendees that "facebook and twitter have not really figured out a way to make money for their services just yet." Yeah right! Google just handed the founders of facebook $1.65 billion because it wanted to provide a free service for all the world to "connect." What are these kids thinking? Do they not know how companies operate, how they must operate to stay in business? One student studying marketing began to speak and I was proud to think that at least one person understood the back door of social media. Then she ended her comments with something like "those ads, even though they are customized to the user, are not really that valuable." I could barely keep my mouth closed until it was my turn to speak. I can't even remember what all I said I was so frustrated with this gullible group of kids! But if I could go back and write down what I hoped I said it would go something like this:

 "We all come to college to learn, not only in the classroom but also from our fellow students. You come to meet new people, hear different music, eat odd foods, travel to stimulating places, attend cultural events and see how others choose to live their lives. With this customized generation sporting their ipod headphones and clicking away at their cell phones as they walk across campus I wonder how you can experience anything you have not predetermined? You listen to the music you have purchased previously, downloaded onto your ipod and keep piped directly into your ears almost every free moment, the universal sign of "NOT INTERESTED." You walk looking down at your phone not noticing the interesting person standing next to you, not hearing the birds or seeing the artistic clouds that loom over your head because you are texting something really important (to your already approved friend) like "What's up?" You miss entirely the serendipity of life, the random encounters and exhilarating process of discovery. Open your eyes and see the real world around you and more importantly see the virtual world for what it is, Big Brother's watching your every move!"

Wonder what the virtual world really is? Well, because this post can't be much longer and the fact that I will be addressing the virtual revolution in my next post, I will keep you hanging til then.

Is YouTube Replacing the Boob Tube?

YouTube is many things to many different people and nothing to some. Before this assignment my friends and family had shown me in total about twenty four videos posted to this site. The clips I viewed ranged from the intellectually stimulating actual space voyage of a toy robot tethered to a weather balloon to the famous Anthony Dodson remix (now boasting over seventy million views) giving people outside our state one more source of fodder with which to prove Alabamians less refined than residents of their own state.

This ever accessible source of video interaction serves the now typical user by providing long term storage of their uploaded short films. These works range from the polished and professional to the painfully amateur and mundane. Regardless of perceived quality of content or presentation, each and every clip uploaded (that is not censored out by YouTube due to inappropriate content) is immediately accessible by anyone plugged into this global community. Broadcast is granted and not deferred by the wait for an anticipated approval by network producers or film investors.

     Gone are the days of controlled viewing options, “Especially as our creative economies shift to more user-generated content, destabilizing the long monopoly of media industries as the exclusive producers of texts and authorized conduits of interpretation.”¹ (Snickars, Vonderau, and Uricchio 35)  With the click of a mouse you may not only select a short video in one of a seemingly limitless list of genres, but also sort your selections by more than twenty five other filters (click search options). In contrast, television allows us to watch what is being broadcast or watch nothing at all. Cable television offers a limited list of on-demand programming but still ultimately reins in our options.

                Hulu and YouTube in fact are “‘increasingly going after each other’s turf, including jockeying for video programming that could generate the most advertising dollars.’  But as the fastest-growing site in the history of the Web, YouTube also remains the default site for video and the prototype for all similar sites to come.”² (Snickars, and Vonderau 10-11)

Unlike the past when all video viewing was characterized by images being projected onto us without any direct opportunity to speak back to the producer, cast or actors, YouTube allows the viewer to do all of this. There is no sign here of the one-sided conversations where movies force their viewers to watch in a muted trance and limit any personal critique to one’s minuscule group of acquaintances. YouTube gives every viewer a voice, not only to the entities that created the piece but to their fellow viewers as well. Due to the relative anonymity of those posting comments, at times it seems that the language chosen is more polarizing than would be used if one were speaking directly to another live person and therefore reveals the harsh and abrasive nature of these often unproven critics.

This relatively new forum for video sharing and opinion posting begs several questions. Should anyone and everyone be allowed to post their video creations regardless of quality? If not, who determines the guidelines that define quality? Should the opinion of a nine year old carry the weight of a life long film critic? How are we to know the difference? Why should we relinquish our power of selection and filtration afforded on YouTube when we wish to watch a video on our television? How soon will these two worlds merge into one? 

References

1)                            Snickars, Pelle, Patrick Vonderau, and William Uricchio. The YouTube Reader. 1st. Stockholm, Sweden: 2009. 35. Print.

2)                            Snickars, Pelle, and Patrick Vonderau. The YouTube Reader. 1st. Stockholm, Sweden: 2009. 10-11. Print.