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| | Social Experiment | | | Saturday, April 18, 2009 (3:39 PM)
(I'm feeling busy) | | It has been such a fascinating social experiment to observe here at Live Video and indeed, other social networking communities. Working as a proof of hypotheses made by several internet researchers, playing a role on the internet is one of the strongest draws for most people who choose to participate in online community activities.
Currently there is a book being written to update the data from previous research when online communities were made up mostly of blogger types. With the transition to video blogging, (vlogging), the trends and subsequent patterns of behavior and group dynamics have evolved and are deserving of a fresh look.
It's been fun from my perspective as well, to see the same people who may adore a character I play, suddenly abhore my personality if I chose to try on one with which I share my "true views", my philosophy on life, and people. I found that very interesting indeed, and supportive of the concept that many psychologists and sociologists have described, that "iconic worship" correlates directly with intelligence. Sometimes, I have to get the better of myself not to go ahead and offer to sell some of these people some swampland I've been holding onto , or perhaps a bridge.
I often hear vloggers talk about truth and being honest with themselves, but rarely get an opportunity to witness uncensored, honest debate. I've always wondered whether people really want the truth when they put themselves out there on video or in a blog. I often conclude the answer is NO and opt out of responding, because it will likely disappoint them. I've come to see most of these interactions whether in the liverooms, blogging or vlogging as just a big circle jerk. People gather in groups of likeminded people to participate in an activity they all feel relatively the same about. Hence, no one wants to rain on their friend's parade and there is often an absence of honesty whether about the persons views, talent, clarity or accuracy. There's also an abundance of whining and complaining. That's a fine pasttime if one truly intends to find solutions to problems and institute them. It irritates me, no matter how I try to avoid that, when I have to listen to someone whining about their state of being, to me, essentially, when half my paycheck is paying for their internet connection so they can sit on their duff and complain to me while I go to work to earn their next "paycheck". I admit, that one is the toughest for me to get past, and attempt to see the person behind the blogger. I find myself thinking mostly, ...just get out their and compete with the rest of us broken and damaged human beings...life doesn't owe you a living and the rest of us will never get anywhere if we have to spend our lives toiling to pay you to stay home with too much time on your hands and an internet connection to spew your complaints at the working population. Yes, it's irritating beyond belief, and I often have answers for these people, but hold back on offering them, because I've seen them be rejected time and again,,,,in place of "remaining the same". These people may just need to play the victim to have something to say...to get the attention they so desire because they don't do anything else in life that would gain them attention, otherwise...Again, no different than IRL, only I can walk away from those people I meet on the street.
The blatant truth is nowhere to be found no matter how often I may hear vloggers express an interest in finding or having a healthy debate about it. The hypocrisy of administrations can be overwhelming as well, whereas if negativity and conflict arise, they feel compelled to make it go away. It's always amazing to observe human beings going in a circular pattern of behavior throughout history, despite their public announcements of wishing to evolve, to communicate, to put it all out there to be evaluated and hashed out. The same groups emerge, the same separation as would be expected. Those of likemind gravitate to one another, those who are weak of mind or spirit, may become blind followers. It's all just a little slice of the real world, only in a digital, impersonal package. No matter how much vloggers seem to be tauting their power and newfound ability to change the world, so far, all I've seen is a sampling of collections of people, partaking in the same conversations they may have in the real world, only mostly inhabited by those who don't normally socialize in the real world. Socially inept human beings may populate social networks, and often the disabled, unemployed, mentally ill, drug addicted, bored, and laziest of the human race become the most active.
All in all, on a very small scale, I've met a few people online whom I would never have learned anything about without having traveled the world to go meet them in person. At the same time, it has just been more solidly confirmed for me, that the internet is a magnet for the socially retarded, needy, mentally ill and many others who have a need to be "invisible" while they interact with others, either to fulfill some need for conflict or acceptance while remaining anonymous. Essentially it can serve as therapy for those who are able to learn about themselves through this communication, while for others it may fuel their antisocial behaviors, and by proxy enable them to continue a life of isolation.
For those for whom the internet is a social outlet which allows them contact with the outside world while they are isolated and shutin by a debilitating disease or immobility, social networking is a wonderful, useful tool for socialization, support and companionship. For these people, I've gone out of my way to spend as much time connecting as possible, knowing full well that a good percentage of those claiming this state of being, will be essentially Liars. I've been able to uncover those with ease and diplomatically remove myself from interactions with them, but find their behavior deplorable, nevertheless. On behalf of those beautiful souls I've encountered online, who are reaching out to others through their only means available, it is those liars, those who create false identities or use communities to locate people to target for extortion, who make some delicate individuals fear the internet. As with all other dealing with human beings, I tend to think they will all get what it coming to them in the end. The sad part is, I will likely have to hear or read about the whining in the aftermath...of how unfair life is, how the world owes them a living and how they have been wronged and victimized...bla bla bla...
I've seen it happen consistently so many times, at this point I feel like I'm watching a tennis match and should have been wiser and taken bets beforehand.
My own participation and immersion in these communities came about when I first was able to make the time to investigate what exactly was going on with online communities. I was experimenting with utilizing the internet as another medium for publishing creative works. I wanted to keep the level of objectivity as intact as possible. I've found essentially that there are communities for competitive artists, where personal interaction is not required that can serve as a more subjective measuring tool.
In conclusion I've ended up seeing the internet as the same powerful tool I've always viewed it as. A way to connect on any level you wish with other human beings, with data, information, and research. To consume visual and text data at increasingly high speeds, in infinite amounts...the only problem remains the power of the human brain to learn to increase it's rate of absorption. I'm working on that.
It's been fun....always interesting whether from the inside or the outside. Be careful, have a good time and perhaps learn to identify deceptive behaviors, to enable yourself to be a good judge of motive and character with those you interact with online.
A few Links one can use as a stepping stone to your own research on Internet Psychology. Take it where ever you want from here:
smg.media.mit.edu/People/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html
faculty.nps.edu/ncrowe/virtcomm160.htm
www.cyberpsychology.eu/index.php
www.ucalgary.ca/~iejll/volume4/mueller.htmlwww-usr.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/psycyber.html
www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/classes/cyberspace/www.rheingold.com/vc/book/1.html
www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/nps/decep_detec.htm
Read Virtual Community by Howard Rheingold available at google books...for online reading
THis online magazine updates on the subject of cybercommunity regularly
www.cybersociology.com/
essentially...these are just starting points...have a blast if you're interested. | | | 364 Views | 6  Thumbs Up | 4 Comments |  |
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| | Wham! | | | Friday, March 6, 2009 (6:49 AM)
(I'm feeling apathetic) | | When Size Matters
It's times like these, if I could do one more thing before I die, I would offer to represent the Airline ProBono:
As Defense attorney for the airline..
My closing argument would be something like this:
Whether each of you accepts the theory of evolution or not,,,doesnt matter in this equation.
Take that out of the equation entirely and let's discuss how human beings reach a certain size at adulthood in a range that is determined by several factors and anything outside this range must be looked at further for causal relationships.
We all know that early man was quite smaller, however, we weren't designing airliners for early man. Airline designers took into account this wide range of body mass in their design of airliner accomodations. As it turns out, the vast majority of civilization is able to take part in airline travel due to this thoughtful process.
Even if human beings are evolving.. and a correlation can be drawn between advancement/increased ease of daily living and SIZE... hence, growing larger over millions of years....
It would be impossible to surmise that human beings have evolved to reach an average size of 400-700 lbs'. ?
Purely theoretically, it would require the vast majority of human beings on the planet to subcribe to a completely sedentary lifestyle. To be fed abundant amounts of food during most of the waking hours, doing nothing more than eating and sleeping. That would demand that no one get a job, go to work or school, and someone else would have to be paying to house and feed these people, so let's let that one go for now (oh wait, we're steadfast on our way there already, but I digress) .
Of course, there would be no courtroom for you to be sitting in right now, if that were the case. I certainly couldn't be here today.
Therefore anyone who choses to abuse their body in such a way that it makes them incapable of normal movement and taking up a more than adequate amount of space in the universe, has earned himself the right to pay for the extra space he must have in order to accomodate his rotting sickly corpse which the rest of us are already paying grand amounts in healthcare costs to keep alive.
I hope you the jury will vote with your head in this case, and grant my client the right to charge a human being who never moves even if he drops the remote...for an extra seat if he suddenly decides he thinks he wants to travel the world and somehow we are to make that possible when he cant even get himself from his lazyboy to the mailbox.
I rest my case | | | | 349 Views | 0 Thumbs Up | 0 Comments | |
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