Digital Journal — Today’s generation of bloggers and social-networking mavens understand one important fact: Everyone’s a public figure, so you might as well post information about yourself before someone else does.
In a fascinating piece in New York Magazine, Emily Nussbaum points out that young people have created the widest generation gap since the rock ‘n’ roll days. They realize their public lives are transparent and easily Google-able. With the popularity of Flickr, YouTube, MySpace and LiveJournal comes the awareness of addressing an “invisible audience,” which could shrink or expand at a finger’s snap.
Daily documentation has become routine for the tech savvy hoping to connect with everyone, anytime. “You can see the evidence everywhere,” Nussbaum writes, “from the rural 15-year-old who records videos for thousands of subscribers to the NYU students texting come-ons from beneath the bar. Even 9-year-olds have their own site, Club Penguin, to play games and plan parties.”
Today’s youth, and older Web users, are following the lead from their caught-on-camera role models: “They have adopted the skills that celebrities learn in order not to go crazy: enjoying the attention instead of fighting it—and doing their own publicity before somebody does it for them,” Nussbaum writes.
Exposure gives way to judgement, which online diarists are quick to absorb. One intriguing side effect of a post-anything lifestyle is developing a thick skin to criticism. Strangely enough, we’re living in an era where humiliation and fame are not that different from each other, evident in practically every reality TV show.
But the Web world gives a platform to more people than just those singing off-key pop songs in front of studio cameras. Nussbaum tracks a 24-year-old user on Iamfacingforeclosure.com, who admits to enduring debilitating debt. Why would he subject himself to such searing embarrassment? “Maybe it’s naïve, but I’m not going to run from responsibility,” he told New York Magazine.
Then there’s the infamous LonelyGirl15, a YouTube phenom where an actress playing a say-anything teenager became one of the most well-known Web celebs. Even when she was found out to be a fake, millions of users still wanted to hear every detail of her manufactured character.
Public life is now theatre, a stage to reveal your secrets and talents, your fantasies and daily drama. You can think out loud and get heard. Sites like Metacafe and Digital Journal reward citizen journalists for reporting on their communities, which raises another question: Will this technological democracy now bankroll raw uncensored opinions, no matter how scathing?
The user-driven Web 2.0 trend is making stars out of everyone, for better or worse. What will be intriguing to watch is how older generations adapt to this transparency, and how youth will react to finding their saucy party photos on Flickr, 10 years after posting them.
