Humping The (new) Media Landscape

What he said!

It’s all input. And every- and anything can tell you something essential about the species.

-George Saunders 

(Read the entire Paris Review interview)

Nickled and Dimed

The past few days I have been obsessed with change. Not the exciting CHANGE of political campaigns and social justice, but the humble change of our pockets. The various containers on my bedside table where such coinage gets dumped, were over full and I am too lazy/cheap to take it to a bank/coinstar machine for bills. Also, I get satisfaction from spending coins. I love having a few pennies on hand so I can give exact change. When relinquishing all my quarters nightly in one little tin, conveniently adds up to just enough, on laundry day, I feel pride that I don't have to "buy" a roll of quarters from the bodega on the corner (and this feeling is the only thing that keeps me from being irate that our laundry room is oddly devoid of coin changer machines).

I certainly have an appreciation for the monetary value of coins. There was even a semester in college where I lived off of the "couch change" from a roommate who, at the time, was making so much cash as a waiter that he didn't care to even pick up the quarters that practically rained from his pockets when passed out on the couch. And although this weekend, I only had a few instances to use my loot, all of them were so successful on a couple of levels that I have started to value coins for more than their ability to make coffee appear. Here's what happened

Maybe I am a little OCD about the change because, when I clean it from my bag at the end of a day, I immediately sort it into different containers. As I said, quarters have a special place as do pennies and for some reason nickles and dimes hang out together in another jar. I counted and sorted the N&D jar, about 10bux! Still, I went out feeling a little nervous about the responses I would get here and there when I paid by counting out my change at the register. Presumably this would annoy the person behind the counter and at best I'd get groans from people behind me in line, and as this is nyc I wouldn't have been surprised if this enraged someone beyond that. Alas, I was determined to move ahead with my plan and I needed the satisfaction of having emptied the N&D jar.

The first time I pay entirely in dimes. I am at a coffee shop in my neighborhood which is the border between Bushwick and Bed-Stuy. It doesn't get me a second look when I count and place two neat one dollar piles of dimes the bar. Server just says "thanks." and I sit down and enjoy my caffeine. I come here often but not enough to say I am a regular so I don't expect to be known. The folks are pretty friendly but I have to say I have never before gotten a cheery "thanks, see you later!" yelled at me from across the room as I exited from this server or any other, as I did on this day. The only thing I could think of that I did differently, was pay in change. Maybe it endeared me or made me stand out in some way subconsciously.  Hm.

That evening I am running late to a party and I need to pick up a bottle of ginger ale on the way. I run into the only place I see open, a Walgreens, and as I get to the register remember the sack of nickels that is all I brought with me. Shit, this lady is going to kill me. I wish there was a bodega open, I feel instinctually they might be cooler about this. I sheepishly tell the 20-something woman across the counter from me, "sorry its going to be a minute just have all this change to count out." She smiles big and says with genuine excitement in her tone "I love doing that!" Whew. We have a brief discussion about how much we both like giving exact change and collecting the change from the bottom of your bag and seeing it add up to dollars. I pay her in nickels and tell her I am so glad she was working tonight. I walk out with my head high, I feel like I am particularly clever and in cool kids club with this Walgreens employee.

Next day, I need to kill time between meetings and stop into a cute little cafe place that appears to serve primarily the college kids from the school buildings directly across the street. I pull out my satchel of change, it is a mix of nickles and dimes. Before I can even apologize for the time it will take me to count it out, the man behind this counter gets super excited and says "YES!". I look up from my task, perplexed but then I realize he commenting on the silver in my palm. "This is what I like to see!" He is absolutely thrilled I randomly stumbled into his cafe and am gifting him with all the nickles and dimes he will need to make change the rest of the afternoon. I am a godsend. His over-the-top response has me laughing. I hand him the sum I owe and say something like "I think its right but you might want to double check". He tells me he doesn't care, as he excitedly transfers the coins into his register drawer. We are both smiling big.

It turns out paying with change can not only buy you a coffee but it can also make you stand out, as a consumer, create a connection over an otherwise anonymous interaction and provide a real service for a small business. Next time I decide (or need) to nickel and dime it, I will do so with pride!

No Emoticon

A Manifesto.

 It is not too late to say what you feel.

Every time you let one of those little emoticons slip into your technologically mediated communications you let a little bit of your humanity slip away. An emoticon is an inadequate and irresponsible stand in for real emotions. And more so, it is an insult to the human ability to express.

Each of us, currently has the right to speak about how we feel to each other. And we have a right to transmit that, in most cases, through a variety of text-based medium. Do not take that lightly. Your personal communications are political. There have been times and there are places today, where you must us symbols to stand in for feelings in order to avoid persecution.

The ability to express is not a given politically nor is it a given practically; we must learn it though practice and experimentation.

Consider each emoticon you choose to eliminate, as an exercise in freedom and practice of expression. Practice the written expression of your emotions with abandon! Use language. At a loss for words? Then say that, or explore a thesaurus. Make up language, if the words you find won’t do. Every colon followed by closed parentheses is a missed opportunity for an expression of human joy. Just think about all the deliciously, salty language experiences we miss out on when someone chooses to express themselves with a semi-colon, closed parentheses rather than a full description of their thoughts at that moment.

Emoticons are feelings for computers. And you, as much as, you may like to think otherwise, are not a computer. Fundamental our experience as a humans, is attempting to express feeling, failing or succeeding, and in the process, creating beauty and understanding. Trust that the thoughtful choice of words will mean, as much if not more, than the immediacy of your response, for every emoticon you eliminate from your communications is a small heroic human act.  

@narcissus can you give me a hand here, I think I'm drowning ;)

The internet is an amazing place to work, play and live but it is also a confusing mess. I am trying to get better at writing about it, to figure out my own boundaries here and hopefully be helpful to other people who struggle to understand their place here.

I originally wrote this essay for Technologies of Persuasion with Douglas Rushkoff at The New School in 2009. I finally got around to making some edits to it and wanted to share it. 

 

Narcissus by Caravaggio

    Check out Ye Olde Narcissus, the beautiful young man, who in a self-absorbed trance, is unable to tell the difference between himself and his reflection.

    His name is thought to be derived from the greek and in his trance he is numb, so numb that he drowns. How embarrassing for him. Today, in a sea of self created reflections, it is far too easy to indulge in our own narcissistic tendencies, with seemingly little consequence. And just as easy to look at others who are drowning and not feel any responsibility. Increasingly, the tools we use for social connection double as reflective surfaces intended to trap us in our own trance of self love.

     

    Initially, I sat down to write a light-hearted piece about how to tell the difference between real people and fake people on the internet. Real people being, you know, your mom, and fake people I assumed, would be brands, “brand ambassadors”, and worst of all those involved in the shameless art of “personal branding”. I thought it would be fairly easy to devise a kind of Turing test which we could apply to help root out the “friends” from the friends. However, as I compared various individuals activities on Facebook and Twitter I found it was more challenging than I'd expected to set a standard for human-ness within the confines of online personal profiles. Here everyone is reduced to a charming, trading card version of themselves; all the quirky profile icons, each representing the identity of a different friend, a collection of words, links, photos that serve as a mnemonic device for recalling individuals I once knew in the flesh. As I looked at all of my trading card friends, I realized there was no way I could point a finger at any of them for being fakes, they were simply doing as the medium asked of them, as was I.

    Connect! Share! This is the persistent call from the internet, today.

    Sites like YouTube and Twitter are built entirely upon the human desire to do just that. But parallel forces are at work. Of course we all want to connect, its in our nature. I want to show photos of myself to my family and see a video of my friends' kids being adorable, I want to tell friends about an interesting article I read. But the way these sites intertwine earnest connecting and sharing with a non-stop public performance is dubious and requires some closer inspection. First of all we need to always remember that these corporate structures for group participation, are just that. All of this public sharing of personal information is taking place on private property. These private properties are businesses with typical business bottom lines. Their goal will always be to make money. No matter if their website tells you that they are here to help you connect, share, make friends etc. all you have to do is look for the 'terms of service' or 'advertise' link in 8 point type at the bottom of the site, to see the other side of this business model. Make no mistake, while these sites may be entertaining and helpful, they are exploitive. All effective persuasion works by taking advantage of preexisting human tendencies and what could be more human than narcissism.

    Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the innumerable other social networking tools we have become dependent on to navigate the internet as a public space, exploit this most predictable of human tendencies for commercial ends. We are being trained to create database versions of our identities, neat and categorical, a fill-in-the-blank persona which can be slotted into demographic and psycho-graphic types that can be sold off to the highest bidder. While this ultimately may not prove be as dire as narcissus' condition, we need to understand how this makes us weak. Maintaining online identities, through which we manage real relationships with real people is effecting how we has humans see ourselves. To successfully telescope ones identity online through these tools we must flatten and become an iconic version of self. The more iconic and symbolic the better - these iconic identities can then be rated and valued based on clicks and friends. The value is public and continues to help drive further increase in value. The way you see yourself establishes a sense of self worth. Establishing a sense of self worth based predominantly on the externalized value in the internet identity market is the slippery slope to a real narcissistic personality disorder.

    The story of Narcissus has persisted in culture for so long because its lesson, is one that has always been needed. But look around and you will be hard pressed to find any similar allegory, today, because the engines of commerce have become dependent upon the obliteration of a Narcissus' lesson. We are getting trained to build mirror images of ourselves, that we can constantly check in on, update and reference. The modern Narcissus' is egged on by the “What are you doing?” box on Twitter and the echo of the resulting 're-Tweets' and @replies of a hundred of other Narcissuses'. She does not merely come upon her image in a calm pool, but is completely surrounded by reflections of herself. She participates in the constant reproduction of her image. She feels empowered by the technologies that do this, she is confident that she is in control. And yet, there is a third party implicated in this situation.

    Unlike Narcissus she is not locked in a gaze with her mirror image, she is looking at me, you, her audience, her followers, her friends, while she holds a camera with its mechanical eye pointed at her. Such triangulation represents for me a far more powerful force than Olde Narcissus could have ever felt. Should this trance be interrupted is she not at risk of tripping backwards and fall in? Narcissus' enchantment made him unable to tell the difference between himself and his reflection but the modern narcissus is so numb that she appears completely unaware that she is surrounded by water, which I can help but imagine rising with each new video she publishes.

    With no modern parables to warn against the dangers of narcissism we are culturally, at risk. For unchecked vanity, becomes vulnerability. Because I don't believe in throwing the baby with the bathwater, I do think we can learn to use these tools without becoming tools. I appreciate Douglas Rushkoff's uplifting assertion that new media “allows people to relegate the inhuman parts of themselves to the machines, while preserving the human for the real world.”  However, until we can identify the reflection from the self we will probably have trouble determining such distinctions.

Sarah Austin “Lifecaster” Photo by Mark Stanton

I'll take macramé over Blu-ray, anyday!

Despite the fact that it's all about YOU,  for many of the marketers vying for your attention, Target, would like to remind us that YOU can only go so far, with that whole personality, thing.

A series of commercials with the tag-line "Time for some new traditions?" serves up a narcissistic perspective on gifting just in time for the holidays!

At first look, this commercial could be seen as celebrating the wacky creativity of making up fun festive foods, but this is not the case. Several normal-type actors proudly present their off beat edible creations to the camera. Their faces are hopeful and eager to please you. However, by the time the tagline appears at the end of the commercial it is clear that you are supposed to feel sad for these people. And sure enough, the link which popped up after watching this video within a banner ad directed me to Target's website to order entire ready-made holiday meals (link). Read: spare yourself the embarrassment.

The other commercial in this series follow suit.

In this scenario you observe two couples exchanging gifts. Couple 1 gives Couple 2 a Blu Ray player (a little extravagant, no?). In return, with the same eager goofy smiles, couple 2 presents couple 1 with a macrame covered boombox (ok, that actually is awesome!) which the lady of the couple 2 apparently made. Couple 1 exchange awkward glances at each other and try to act polite by saying "this smells like a cat". 

The didactic tone of these commercials is reminiscent of a classic 1950's social instruction film. Poor Suzy she dresses sloppy and the other kids say mean things about her, don't be a Sloppy Suzy! Similarly, these commercials serve as a warning that others might be embarrassed FOR you. Should you be tempted to give out crafty crap as gifts or invent recipes, remember your friends and family think that's weird. Make everyone more comfortable and just buy stuff from Target.

The set up of these ads is meant to remind the audience of what it feels like when you have to be gracious and accept a gift that you don't really like. The implication is that this is always negative experience. But in actuality, it feels equally as great to receive something someone made for you as it does to make something for someone else. These commercials encourage a perspective of childlike narcissism only to play it against the common social anxiety felt about pleasing other people.

On a whole Target's advertising is a cut above. Their stylish and simple Worholian celebrations of commerce are completely transparent and effective, even a pre-Black Friday series featuring the comedic talent of Maria Bamford were fun without being insulting. Target has proved that it is possible to still sell things people without putting out a negative message and I guess, that's why this set of commercials feels cheap and lazy to me.

So yes, Target, it is time for some new traditions... make whatever inventive food and gifts you want to give to your friends and family this holiday season in confidence that they will love you even more for doing so.

If you don't have time or inclination to make shit for your friends and family, this holiday season, you should at least support other people who do. Considering making a stop at a local craft fair (Bust Craftacular - Sun Dec 6th in NYC!) or visit the always open online craft fantasia website Etsy.com.

Your Personality Sucks

Vampire fantasy is inescapable. Today, confronted by an onslaught of particularly annoying advertising, I got to thinking about the real bloodsuckers and why we are so poorly equipped to resist them.

Yes, real vampires exist and they are way more annoying than the sparkly kind and far less sexy than the interviewed kind, but don't worry, they are equally as needy!

Edward: I have to tell you something. The reason why you are one dimensional, is because I stole your personality from you while you were busy updating your iPod apps in chem lab this morning. sorry.

Bella: That's OK, I never really had that much stake in it to begin with. Can we make out now?

So, while Ed and Bella do that, we can talk about the latest Yahoo! brand campaign.

This ad in particular, has me fired up

Now the internet has a personality. Yours.

Yahoo!: Single White Website (thanks to @dloher for that subtitle!)

On the one hand I applaud it's honesty. Openly stating that your brand has nothing to offer is pretty bold. And it's true. YOU are the product that many media companies now sell to each other. If they can't convince millions of us use their service, they got nothing. Currently, these businesses trade us services and tools for personal data and this works pretty well. But as a long term business plan? How long can this value proposition hold up?

As long as they can convince us that we are the center of the YOUniverse. And so, vampires they must become.

I saw Jonathan Zittrain give this Minds For Sale, talk at the Digital Labor conference last month. He goes through examples of the many ethically questionable deals businesses are making with individuals online all the time. I am interested specifically, in the exploitation of individuals personalities/identities but he essentially covers the same issues and frameworks. Well worth a watch plus Zittrain keeps it entertaining.

Also, it's not because they are vampires that you want to suck face with them, its because they are 16, you creepy pedophiles!

the little things

Great quote from David Armano of Logic+Emotion :

"We live in a world where the little things really do matter. Each encounter no matter how brief is a micro interaction which makes a deposit or withdrawal from our rational and emotional subconscious. The sum of these interactions and encounters adds up to how we feel about a particular product, brand or service. Little things. Feelings. They influence our everyday behaviors more than we realize.”

Hello World it's 7antasy Tuesday!

The world is telling me I should start blogging again on a regular basis. So here I go world...

Every Tuesday here will be 7antasy Tuesdays from now on (or as often as I remember). I will share a different marketing tactic I stumble across on my daily wanderings of NY City streets.

Spotted last week upon exiting 2nd Ave F train on Houston Street and 1st Ave.

I felt it was a very bold and innovative promotional move on the part of Monopaly Ent. Let's break it down.

Placement - Anyone coming out of this high foot traffic spot could not possibly miss it in fact I almost collided with it physically. When you come up from the station you are facing this fence about 2.3 paces front of you. There is no advertising competition on this space aside from the occasional dog walker sign and those are usually on much smaller white pieces of paper.

Material and Color - The selection of this vibrant marigold yellow was particularly effective on such a gray day. Also, everyone knows that marigold is the color of choice at Indian weddings and those are always great celebrations that you def want to get invited to. The paper is not exactly poster board but some type of thick craft paper possibly the kind that comes in rolls and is used by kindergarten teachers wrap a chalkboard in to create a springtime mural and that is a nice association to have (although a little bittersweet) because everyone knows that Kindergarten is the last year that school is fun.

Fonts, Kerning and Layout etc.- Handwriting while legible, is not too precise which is good because if it were too even one might think it was actually written by a kindergarten teacher. The words settle in a sort of inverted pyramid shape. The upward slant of the copy along with the slight decrease in font size from left to right gives the whole sign a positive uplifting feeling as if to say 'hey, everybody may be workin' for the weekend but who says you can't go out on a Tuesday? Live it up, tiger!' It also gives the illusion of depth it is as if the words are actually popping out of the page and then receding into space. Note the clever use of 7 for F in the word '7antasy' (thanks Craige for noting this unique spelling). This is just plain weird but the eye is just drawn to it. It's almost a Z and that says excitement! Could be a reference to something internety (you know how they do, r3placing l3tt3rs with numb3rs) or maybe a logo that 7antasy Tuesdays would like to eventually develop for their web presence.

Overall Grade: B+

Futures of Entertainment 2

Last week I attended the Futures of Entertainment conference presented by MIT's Convergence Culture Consortium. It was a great weekend, inspiring and engaging.

The most exciting part was getting to be around people who are experienced enough to be jaded, yet manage to still be excited about the possibilities for media in the future. The mix of industry professionals who are adept at academic discourse and academics who are interested in the media marketplace was really unique.

The entire conference included only 4 panels, each extending to about 3 hours. When I told Sam Ford,one of the organizers, how much I appreciated this, he said that the time frame is intended to make panelists run out of talking points and actually get into genuine extemporaneous dialog. It certainly allowed for much more in depth conversations that one would typically encounter at a panel of the same title elsewhere.

I finally had some time this weekend to take a look at my notes from the conference and I will be post highlights from them in the next few days, as a way to get this myself used to writing on this blog.
 

The People in Your Neighborhood

I am fascinated by the various people who make visits the neighborhood drug dealer who lives on the first floor of Z's appartment building. This woman must be such the old school East Village dealer. Her clientele is so varied. I am truely impressed.

To date I've seen:

• Young Goth Girl
• Very Gay 30-Something
• Older Plastic Sugery Face Woman
• Anxious Hassidic Man