Moloth - The M-Forums

Moloth · 9/14/09 4:34 pm

from: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor … =112812234

It's practically impossible for a celebrity to go out into the street, to a bar, to have a peaceful meal in a restaurant, to go shopping, to take a walk in a mall (there's a mall that pays me just to walk around and be seen in it—what's it called, again?), to go to the movies, to see a show, to go to the theater, without being recognized.

But surely it's worse to go out onto the street and have nobody recognize you—for no one to know who you are.

To have nobody staring at you with curiosity, nobody asking for your autograph or telephone number, nobody flirting with you, kissing you, nobody pointing at you, nobody envying and admiring you. Nobody following you, nobody photographing you with one of those disposable cameras they make for tourists.

It would be better never to have been born in the first place than to have to walk the streets unrecognized. Is there even a difference?

It's only the fact of being seen and known that makes me real, that makes me certain that I am, that I exist, that I am here.

It's wonderful to be seen, to be recognized. It's the mainspring of my life.

It's wonderful to be loved and hated—because, yes, there are people who detest me, despise me, people who'd even like to spit on me.

MizPhoenix · 9/15/09 12:03 am

Although it's hard to nail down, information technology is transforming our whole image of the self.

I really don't think information technology is transforming self. It is merely magnifying it. For centuries, civilized societies has always had rules about how one should carry oneself in public, rules about what should be said to a neighbor vs a relative vs a coworker. There were boundaries between what a person would know about another person. Media is not recreating the idea of "self" or transforming it, media is simply putting life under a glass and amplifying what's already there. Perhaps knowing that the magnifying glass is there is changing the way people act in public and changes what is private vs public, but this kind of thing has been happening over the course of human history. All media is doing is making it more apparent and giving humans the opportunity to document and research it. Perhaps if we look at it the right way, we'll be able to garner more information about ourselves than what we have perceived before?

Like it or not, we all do live in public more than we dreamed we would even 10 years ago. And the question is, Do we embrace this new world or do we run away screaming — even knowing that someone may post our screams on YouTube.

Considering that motion pictures started out based on the idea to prove Darwin's theory of evolution and settling a bet then Edison and the Lumiere brothers found the opportunity for profit and creativity, since mass media was born, people, society have become more public than it was 150 years ago. We've been embracing this new world for over a century now...maybe we should just get over it. Mass media is only speeding up what has been happening for the past few thousand years since the invention of language and the means to communicate with it (stone, paper, symbols). We're all just getting to know each other....faster than we probably would like.......

Moloth · 9/15/09 11:03 am

the age old dilemma: our technological progress is occurring far faster than our cultural/moral progress.

this whole business relates back to the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity.

Moloth - The M-Forums

#1 9/14/09 4:34 pm

Fame

#2 9/15/09 12:03 am

Re: Fame

#3 9/15/09 11:03 am

Re: Fame

Board footer