http://www.upworthy.com/loneliness-illustrated-so-beautifully-you-will-need-to-tell-someone?c=upw1
OK OK, Damn it. I just got knocked onto my ass 0_o after watching this video. Argh, I really hate upworthy sometimes, but the link above opens to an animated video that in 4 minutes captures what I've been trying to say about loneliness in a way more articulate way that I am.
There is so much fodder to fuel my project from this short clip, where the creator Shimi Cohen- a graphic designer, blatantly calls out social network as the innovation of loneliness and how our need for self actualization (thanks Gardner) has led to an alienation of real relationships and thus leads us to being addicted to the virtual leaving us lonely- the largest sickness facing the western world away.
Because we are in major control of what we can put online- we have way more control that allows us "to edit, and present ourselves as we want" thus losing the risk of spontaneous and real interactions.
He says that social networks grants us "fantasies"
-we can focus on what we want
-we will always be heard
-we never have to be alone
and he then culimates this amazing video with a new mode of thinking "I SHARE THEREFORE I AM"
and then bam, my face started to melt with his final thought.
"if we're never able to be alone, then all we'll ever know is how to be lonely."
He speaks directly to what I'm trying to say that we've become so dependent on our networks that we are indeed compelled to continually feed content to our online profiles, and are more focused on our narcissistic selves than real connections. Because the potential for us to maintain relationships over great distances and distract ourselves from "the ones we're with," and our growing addiction/need to always feel up to date with other online content, it's incredibly difficult to disengage and re-evaluate our relationships, and thus understand what it is to be alone and inversely- what it means to be in a relationship/not alone. (relationships being any form of relationship with other people).
I really want to succinctly capture the messages in this video somehow in a live (performative) way. I need to figure out a way to make this happen.
I keep saying it over and over again, and I don't know what I am trying to say. I've been lonely my whole life. I was raised by lonely people who only spoke through yelling or hitting. I've been so lonely that I'd take abuse, rape, drugs, and debt for a few moments of love. But funny enough, I've never given up art or education for a relationship. I've never given up a career for a relationship. Though I've run away to those things so I wouldn't have to deal with it.
I work 5 jobs. I don't need to work 5 jobs. (OK I might need to work 5 jobs- grad school isn't cheap), but so many of those jobs are because I need to have some sort of human interaction or I am left lying naked in bed alone all day, too depressed to walk out into the sun, or crying alone in my stark, almost sterile, mouse infested studio with little more than facebook to keep me company.
I can't speak enough about how this video captures me. And the people I want to address.
How do I make this happen?
Monday, December 16, 2013
These next 10 minutes will change your life....
http://www.upworthy.com/watch-what-this-make-believe-girl-means-to-1000-sexual-predators?c=reccon1
The above link is to an upworthy video. I wasn't sure what I should post, and was supposed to look for inspiration. So of course, upworthy.
First of all, I have to say- I don't subscribe. I'm not a subscriber, and any site that promotes to continually change your life, or change your week, or flip your perspective upside down- leaves me leery. It just seems like propoganda, but propoganda that feeds on some part of us that needs to feel good for a short while.
The video above is about a group in the Netherlands who created a CGI 10 year old Filipino girl to chat with men online, and uncover sexual predators. I find this video inspirational on a lot of levels. Here's why:
1) Activist are using art in the pursuit of justice, and vigilantism.
2) This video is going viral.
3) This video is calling for names and supporters- and despite people becoming more wary of what they petition or sign their name to online, and the apparently value of how little information someone needs of you to find you, people will give up their information for free.
I want to go back to my earlier point about feeding parts of us that need to feel good for a short while. I wonder how much upworthy videos actually change the way we behave. I wonder how much videos like it, instead simply feed our apathy. If we look for something inspirational, and while on yet another mindless hour of facebooking, are fed just enough words like "you won't believe what she did..." "these next 10 minutes will..." to get us to watch something for a few minutes, potentially sign some online petition or share the video... and then we return to our mundane unchanged behaviour- feeling good that we promoted a good cause. yay us. As opposed to going out and doing something.
Just how many videos do we need of how "women are changed with photoshop" and "ideals of beautify are flawed" for us to realize that... those things are true and we have a choice to change them?
With #itscomplicated- I want people to change. I want the videos of the amazing spoken word, and music and sounds that come up to be spread like wild fire on youtube. That's not my intention, but it'd be amazing if it did. So i wonder if I need to employ these online marketing tactics to bait viewers? But knowing I employed these devices (if I did/do) would that dilute what I'm trying to say?
Also- I am inspired by the sudden relationship we form with these people in these videos who pour out their hearts for 2-4-10 minutes and suddenly we feel like we know them, empathize with them. We do this all the time with tv and film, but the difference with youtube and online videos is that these people suddenly seem more "real" and less like "actors" or "characters" though we'll never be able to tell for sure- until they tell us.
What I do love about upworthy is its ability to mass market- empathy. Whoever is behind it, pulls on heart strings and understands how we work online. This is something I do want to be able to do better, not so I can manipulate viewers or users, but to... honestly... better communicate our content.
The above link is to an upworthy video. I wasn't sure what I should post, and was supposed to look for inspiration. So of course, upworthy.
First of all, I have to say- I don't subscribe. I'm not a subscriber, and any site that promotes to continually change your life, or change your week, or flip your perspective upside down- leaves me leery. It just seems like propoganda, but propoganda that feeds on some part of us that needs to feel good for a short while.
The video above is about a group in the Netherlands who created a CGI 10 year old Filipino girl to chat with men online, and uncover sexual predators. I find this video inspirational on a lot of levels. Here's why:
1) Activist are using art in the pursuit of justice, and vigilantism.
2) This video is going viral.
3) This video is calling for names and supporters- and despite people becoming more wary of what they petition or sign their name to online, and the apparently value of how little information someone needs of you to find you, people will give up their information for free.
I want to go back to my earlier point about feeding parts of us that need to feel good for a short while. I wonder how much upworthy videos actually change the way we behave. I wonder how much videos like it, instead simply feed our apathy. If we look for something inspirational, and while on yet another mindless hour of facebooking, are fed just enough words like "you won't believe what she did..." "these next 10 minutes will..." to get us to watch something for a few minutes, potentially sign some online petition or share the video... and then we return to our mundane unchanged behaviour- feeling good that we promoted a good cause. yay us. As opposed to going out and doing something.
Just how many videos do we need of how "women are changed with photoshop" and "ideals of beautify are flawed" for us to realize that... those things are true and we have a choice to change them?
With #itscomplicated- I want people to change. I want the videos of the amazing spoken word, and music and sounds that come up to be spread like wild fire on youtube. That's not my intention, but it'd be amazing if it did. So i wonder if I need to employ these online marketing tactics to bait viewers? But knowing I employed these devices (if I did/do) would that dilute what I'm trying to say?
Also- I am inspired by the sudden relationship we form with these people in these videos who pour out their hearts for 2-4-10 minutes and suddenly we feel like we know them, empathize with them. We do this all the time with tv and film, but the difference with youtube and online videos is that these people suddenly seem more "real" and less like "actors" or "characters" though we'll never be able to tell for sure- until they tell us.
What I do love about upworthy is its ability to mass market- empathy. Whoever is behind it, pulls on heart strings and understands how we work online. This is something I do want to be able to do better, not so I can manipulate viewers or users, but to... honestly... better communicate our content.
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