Monday, March 30, 2009

Are We Nosy?


So we've got social networking sites, reality TV shows, advanced google mapping and that girl who stares across the road when you're leaving your house making you that much more paranoid about what she's planning...no? maybe thats just me.

Either way the first three modes of "entertainment" have got me wondering whether there's a sudden burst of subtle voyeurism in the minds of it's users. You take Facebook for instance and disect what it's used for...the benefits are obvious, catching up with friends, networking, contacting people when you havent got minutes/credit (good times), sharing files etc but then what happens in between that? Fortunately for Mark Zuckerberg however and unfortunately for us Facebook can become addictive and you find yourself roaming for friends out of bordeom checking up on their photos, relationship statuses, eavesdropping on their conversations with a mutual friend or with a randomer, or your on the receiving end of an unwanted add/message from someone who's seen a photo of you in their school friend's twice removed cousin's facebook rave...you know the one where you're in a photo with your three friends holding a champagne glass in those new sharp megapixel cameras.... or maybe you're that person who adds them lol.

Social networks have kinda taken two directions. The first direction is the original purpose and the second is straight voyeurism/nosiness/"inner" behaviour. Its not our faults I guess, these mediums are just designed to make us be the receiver or the trigger of such behaviour. Take Twitter for another example, it is again great for networking, communication and promotion but from another perspective it's just an ever updating list of statuses about what everybody's up to...nosy!! I have fallen for the trap a couple of times since being on twitter but it's hard not to since thats all it is, you have to "follow" each other to make sense of it all so essentially it's a networking stalker starter kit. It's the closest you'll get to speaking to certain celebs/superstars so I guess thats ok....yep nothing more fun than making friends with famous people who dont talk back.

Then there's the reality TV shows which are beginning to wipe out original programming (still kinda pissed about Trouble TV getting locked off, re-runs or not). I used to wonder why there wasn't any innovative programmes on TV til I realised that viewers just dont watch it. No ad revenue for TV networks means bankruptcy and so they venture into the world of "reality" and make shows where viewers can participate. The public love eavesdropping, its what the word "public" is based on, trust me. As for the google map innovation, well it doesnt take a genius to know what that may lead to. All in all I cant help but think media mediums have helped illustrate a fact that we all have known at the back of our minds, we are nosy!!!

"The things most people want to know about are usually none of their business. It's a 50/50 on whether they can make it their business with positive outcome"

3 comments so far....:

Mas (unsigned) said...

Dahm rite we are Nosey, I guess because TV makes us realise how normal our life are, so we look to see or hear about ppl with more interesting lives than ourselves. Just look at the amount of people that speak of Eastenders characters like they know them. 'I think she should tell him he is not the dad' Iam like Pssst!..its only TV. That level of Noseyness continues in reality, I never manage to miss some of the neighbours gossiping bout other peoples households. :p

Broadband said...

lol haha so true Mas

Creasy said...

Another thing I may dare to add is in reference to facebook etc everyone wants to be a star these days, everyone wants to be in the limelight, so they stick up their pictures and have their "friends" right their Magazine columns (comments on each pic etc) about the night, how they look, and the event, just like the stars they hear about on TV, magazines etc...... And for most this has now become a subconscious act as your subconscious controls your conscious …. And for those that it is a conscious endeavour, your life is not that bad!!!
Good Read Mr. Broadband!!!

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