The YouTubization of American culture ensures that any and every act committed in public will be captured on a cell phone camera or a camcorder and posted for instant global consumption so others can laugh at it. It’s no longer enough to keep your guard up; now, you send your videographers to dog the footsteps of your competitors. I’m sure the quality of the conversation will improve, as a result.
Dennis Miller commented the other day that he was frustrated at not having a “Don’t Taze Me Bro” t-shirt up on his website fast enough. Someone should have told him that there were 106 “Don’t Taze Me Bro” T-shirts available on Café Press 48 hours after the event took place. Today, one week later, there are 185. One week later. Over 100 different designs to choose from. Social media and speed.
Did you hear about the Texas teenager who is suing Virgin Mobile Australia for using her image without her consent in their advertising? This is an interesting story on a number of levels. First, how did Virgin Australia end up with her picture (Flickr and a creative commons license used inappropriately, as it turns out). Second, how did she ever find out about it (pure luck). Third, and most perplexing, does Virgin Mobile Australia have no legal help (a right to use a photo as long as you show attribution doesn’t mean doodly squat unless you have a model release)? However, pan back and look at the entire picture (no pun intended) and acknowledge to yourself that ten years ago, none of this could have happened.
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Key Takeaways:
> The dawn of social media means you can get into trouble faster than ever. You can become a post-Andy Wharhol celebrity, enjoying your 1.5 nanoseconds of fame with a speed only constrained by your bandwidth.
Lastly, a very well respected journalist and blogger, Jason La Canfora of the Post, had what can only be described third person as a catastrophic experience with his printer the other day and was irked enough to take time out of his day to talk about it on his blog. A word about Jason and his one-year old blog: this week, it recorded its 100,000th comment. When Jason talks, the city (and the Redskin faithful) listen. And comment, as you can see. Fortunately, people either know people or know of people, so hopefully Jason’s comment has prompted a speedy and resolute response from the printer vendor, who is now acutely aware of Jason’s pain and is hopefully on the case.
See? Social media can get you out of trouble, too.
Regards.
Stephen,
I am a loyal University of Florida alum and the tasering incident pained me deeply. Yes, the kid was obnoxious. But if we tased anyone who was obnoxious at any given moment our sidewalks, streets, stores, restaurants, cafes and institutions would be impassable with people rolling around saying “Don’t Taze Me, Bro.”
… and they’d all have lots of fashion choices if they did wear their sentiments on their sleeves.
There’s another post in here somewhere begging to be written. Between a student literally begging to be put on YouTube by disrupting a public forum and an MIT student coming a hairsbreadth from deadly force by wearing a fake bomb to an airport, many in our culture seem to have abandoned the idea of personal accountability in favor of instant YouTube celebrity, with the obligatory lawsuit and book deal soon to follow. In this case, technology has made us much less responsible.
Whether you agree or disagree with the security detail’s actions is a matter of debate and certainly wasn’t the point of this post; I found it interesting that in our “t-shirt culture” we have 106 designs ready to ship in 48 hours.
Do such individuals (Tazer Boy), companies (Jet Blue), CEO’s (Whole Foods), ad agencies (Boston Moonites), and boards (HP) really consider the implications of their actions in a world where transparency and instant communication are expected? We have to wonder at their judgement and their motivations. Are they oblivious to the consequencs or are they just reckless? Does either answer give us, as customers or shareholders or just fellow attendees, any sense of comfort? Social media can get you into (or potentially out of) trouble very quickly.
This stuff didn’t happen back in the day. People disrupting public forums weren’t shown such restraint and respect as they are today. Has the imperfect storm of YouTube, Miss Spears, and Reality TV made us into a culture of “instant celebrity without fame junkies”?
I don’t know. After all, this is just a marketing blog. And I ain’t going political.
Clearly the tazer dude, even though he probably didn’t think they’d do that, was looking for attention. I hope he considers this the spanking he desperately needed. I doubt it, though. Fame is a drug.