Spectator Culture Goes Online
I was there, man, and I took a bunch of photos
Posted Sep 9, 08:57 pm in
The other day I was biking down John Nolan Drive, a very nice lakefront path here in Madison, WI. As I approached an intersection, I saw a small crowd of people staring off into the water. As I got closer, I saw that there was a fellow sitting in a pickup truck, which isn’t that unusual. What was unusual was that the pickup truck was on a small but steep incline, and the back half of the truck (and then some) was completely underwater. A large SUV was trying without luck to pull the poor guy out of the water, but the rope kept breaking before he could do it. I observed this dramatic scene for a moment, and realized shortly that the crowd had gotten considerably bigger than when I first arrived. It was 5-6 people initially, but after a few moments, it turned to something more like 20.
To his credit, the driver of the underwater truck was in a remarkably chipper mood considering that his vehicle was quite likely going to be reeking of pondscum and fish for the remainder of the life of the truck, not to mention the fact that there was going to be a lot of water damage to the interior. And he seemed to ignore the fact that more than half of these bystanders appeared rather gleeful, and were taking out their digital cameras and cell phones, and snapping away. These amateur paparazzi made quite a show of it; they maneuvered around, taking shots from different angles and distances, apparently oblivious of the fact that this could be construed as rather rude and insensitive, not to mention somewhat embarrassing to the man.
From my perspective, all these people were apparently experiencing if not some form of schadenfreude at his expense, then some joy about the prospect of posting the resulting photos on the internet, sharing them with friends, or tossing them in a heap of digital files on their hard drives.
The simultaneous advent of digital photography and the rise of the internet as the primary means of sharing complex information has led to this interesting social-psych phenomena that I’ve observed in numerous contexts: concerts, natural disasters, accidents, when someone famous is nearby, etc. People have this strange compulsion to constantly capture such things. But I’ve noticed that it’s not necessarily meaningful events that people seem to want to capture; just as often, it’s events that can potentially offer some sort of social capital later.
I suspect that in the recesses of these paparazzis’ minds, these photos are like visual equivalents of secrets; they potentially give their owners status because they might be valuable or interesting to others later. They are proof that I was there, and that I am an interesting person. I can get a bunch of attention and rack up a bunch of hits on YouTube. This photo is going to make it to the top of Digg!
So important is this status conferral that some people are willing to endanger their lives to get these photos and videos. Head on over to your favorite video site and you’ll see people— clearly not professionals— who are just standing around filming with their cell phone cameras as devastating tornadoes come up right next to them. Why in the world would anyone risk their life for this? Maybe desperation to be the genius behind the next piece of viral media or to be the progenitor of the next big cultural meme is more valuable than being alive. After all, if you die without uploading a photo of you standing in the eye of an F5 tornado, you’re just dead; upload that bad boy onto the internet, and you’re immortal.
I’ve noticed that tourists do this obsessive picture-taking thing a lot too. It’s more understandable to me in their context, but the odd part is that I’ve seen many tourists spending a lot more effort and energy in taking photos than in being in the moment and enjoying the change of scenery and culture. I once met a middle-aged woman who spent her entire trip to Thailand fiddling with a camera to take photos to show to her relatives (who she even admitted later probably wouldn’t care about them). But still her compulsion to polish off dozens of rolls of film (this was the old days) was impossible to repress, so much so that I fear she didn’t even get the chance to appreciate the trip.
But the internet has amplified our worst spectatorial tendencies because it has made transmission easier and has broadened the potential audience. Which means that anyone with a camera is now looking for their 15 minutes of fame— and might get it. For better or for worse.
Hey dood, paparazzi is plurale! you no needa to putta da apostrophe at end, eh? the apostrophe, she likea to sit in the middle, like a mustache on bellissima carla bruni!
Ciao, dood!
— heydoood · Sep 10, 05:04 pm · #
I’m going to name my firstborn child “Schadenfreude”!
— Bartleby · Sep 13, 12:17 am · #
NEIN! YOU VILL NAME HER GRETA! SHE VILL GROW UP STRONG, LIKE VALKYRIE, NOT VEAK LIKE DASHBÖRD CONFESSIONAL.
— Neindood · Sep 13, 03:09 pm · #
I’ve decided to name my kid “lol,” with a lower case L. And there will be no punctuation that ever follows his/her name, even if it’s at the end of a sentence.
Ex. “Get your ass in here lol”
— Rahul · Sep 14, 10:32 pm · #