Catfish is a contemporary documentary that portrays how social media has impacted individuals and society as a whole. Sometimes, these social media sites encourage people to get away from reality and the stresses of face to face communication. These people feel more comfortable hiding behind a computer screen as an alternate person or projection of themselves. Yaniv Schulman is the young man in the documentary that unfortunatley is a victim of Angela, a 40 year old woman who pretends to be a hot, young woman named Megan. Angela would call, write, and use facebook to communicate with Yaniv. Over time they developed a romantic relationship and a lust that led them to eventually meet, or thought Yaniv.
At the same time, Angela was sending Yaniv artwork through facebook that she claimed to have been done by her nine year old daughter abbey. Yaniv and his crew would send pictures to "abbey" and she would send them replica paintings in return. This made Yaniv's relationship with the family even more intimate as they had several interests in common. The relationship became so close and intimate that Yaniv and his crew decided to make the trip from NewYork to Michigan.
Upon arrival to Michigan, Yaniv and his crew didnt exactly find what they were looking fo or what they were expecting. They knocked on the door and finally meet Angela and realized that she had other children that she had not mentioned. Through a second marraige she now has two severly mentally retarded boys. These boys required 24/7 attention and care. When they meet Angela, everything seems to being going fine and when Yaniv asks about Megan and Abbey, Angela has excuses for why neither of them wre there. Abbey is supposedly at her friends beach house and is willing to come home to meet Yaniv. After being skeptical about hr existence, Yaniv and the crew are relieved to see that Abbey actually exists. What they would eventually find out, is that all the paintings were done by Angela and not Abbey.
At first, Yaniv felt used and pissed off, and now he was begginning to think tht there was no Megan. When having a casual conersation on the porch with Angela and the crew, Angela reveals that she will lose her hair due to kemo therapy. Later, we find out that she was lying about having cancer and this is a perfect example of her need to live multiple lives and avoid her real one. She feels most at ease this way. When Yaniv asks about Megan again, Angela tells him that she has a drinking problem and that she is in rehab more than 100 miles away. Yaniv is devastated and i becoming more skeptical about megans actual existence. Later, Yaniv Finds out that Angela has used Megans pictures to create an alternative personality on facebook. So in truth, Megan does exist, but she does not live in michigan and she does not know Yaniv. She is marrid with children living on the west coast. Yaniv is angry but iseventually able to forgive Angela because he realizes that she has issues when it comes to her life and her personality.
Throughout this course we have been educated about many ways Web 2.0 has an impact on our daily lives. The evolution of the Internet had rapidly evolved into somewhat of an alternate reality. Websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Myspace are all places people can go and potentially become someone they are not. The Internet can be a scary place and the film Catfish just goes to show how potentially dangerous it can be. With the internet always evolving, it is becoming even more diffilcult to actually know who we are talking to and who we are giving our information to. Personally, I do not think it is right for peopleto b making false identites to others because they are not doing it at the discretion of others on the web. Ultimatley, I think that people get bored and lonely sometimes and they find the democratized internet and social media to be a safe haven for themselves to project their beliefs and feelings.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Exit through the gift shop
As our society becomes more individualistic, people have found more ways to market themselves and their ideas. It has become even more difficult to differentiate in today's extremely competitive society. Therefore, I believe that people must look outside the box of traditional marketing in order to make a name for themselves and get their message across to their audience. One of the biggest issues with conveying a message is to first make the audience aware of your basic ideas. This has become easier since the creation of web 2.0, as it allows people to document and share their work to people all over the world. This presents a potential opportunity to share a message with people of different backgrounds and cultures who may interpret the work differently. Various interpretations can actually lead to uncovering ideas and messages that the author or artist did not originally intend. Basically, by sharing your work with people around the world, you can actually learn something that you may not have noticed by yourself. Essentially, I believe that the internet and web 2.0 is like a global university for students of all disciplines to share ideas and beliefs. Furthermore, I believe that this is a tremendous opportunity for individuals like Banksy to share their ideas. Its almost like the entire globe is the artists canvas.
The fact that Banksy remains anonomous from his work throughout the documntary suggests two different things to me. First, I believe that he is so passionate about his work and is so dedicated to spreading his message that he believes puting a face to it would just hinder the message. Instead, the ar speaks for itself and delivers a message created by the viewers interpretation. This allows for many different interpretations from people all over the globe. Maybe Banksy is hoping that his ideas and works inspire others to eventually create their own works. On the other hand, he might also remain anonomous to prevent from being punished by the law. Because lets not forget, as nice as Bankys work is, it is considered to be vandalism of private property. But I actually appreciate that he remains annonomous throughout the documentary. I thought it gave the documentary a "cool feel."
I thought that the documentary was very similar to reality television in the manner in which is was recorded and edited. I thought that they did a very good job making the documentary. Especially the couple of scenes where Banksy and his camera man were climbing up steep roofs in order to get to the best location. At one point Banksy was five stories in the air applying his stensils while his camera man was even higher than that just to capture the best shot. This showed a great deal of dedication and belief about their objectives as artists.
I believe that the illegality of Bankys work also comes from the viewers eyes. Some people may see it as destructive vandalism that is polluting citys around the world. While others may think that it is actually enhancing the look of the cities. Personally, I believe that everything in moderation is ok, including street art like Bankys. Overall, as long as long as the street art is not harming anyone or anything, Im ok with it.
The fact that Banksy remains anonomous from his work throughout the documntary suggests two different things to me. First, I believe that he is so passionate about his work and is so dedicated to spreading his message that he believes puting a face to it would just hinder the message. Instead, the ar speaks for itself and delivers a message created by the viewers interpretation. This allows for many different interpretations from people all over the globe. Maybe Banksy is hoping that his ideas and works inspire others to eventually create their own works. On the other hand, he might also remain anonomous to prevent from being punished by the law. Because lets not forget, as nice as Bankys work is, it is considered to be vandalism of private property. But I actually appreciate that he remains annonomous throughout the documentary. I thought it gave the documentary a "cool feel."
I thought that the documentary was very similar to reality television in the manner in which is was recorded and edited. I thought that they did a very good job making the documentary. Especially the couple of scenes where Banksy and his camera man were climbing up steep roofs in order to get to the best location. At one point Banksy was five stories in the air applying his stensils while his camera man was even higher than that just to capture the best shot. This showed a great deal of dedication and belief about their objectives as artists.
I believe that the illegality of Bankys work also comes from the viewers eyes. Some people may see it as destructive vandalism that is polluting citys around the world. While others may think that it is actually enhancing the look of the cities. Personally, I believe that everything in moderation is ok, including street art like Bankys. Overall, as long as long as the street art is not harming anyone or anything, Im ok with it.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Andrew Keen Questions
1. Andrew keen is not very fond of Democratized media and the effects that it has had on our society as a whole. Keen especially believes that this generation of web 2.0 is destroying the young, creative minds of today's children. He believes that children are beginning to lose a sense of reality when it comes to playing today's realistic video games. Keen was also concerned about the effects of web 2.0 on big businesses and the government. He argues that mankind is slowly losing its creative thinking and becoming more and more reliant on the internet. An example of a modern deomcratized media would be Wikipedia. This is essentially a wiki and a encyclopedia combined into one. The problem with this is that anyone can make adjustments to the content wihout it being credible information. This can pose a major problem because some people may interpret this information as being accurate just because it is on the internet. Overall, Andrew Keen seems to be very pesimistic when it comes to the internet. I believe that as long as it is used in moderation and for the right reasons, the internet can be a worldwide university.
2. Douglas Rushkoff and Andrew Keen seem to having opposing viewpoints on web 2.0 and its effects on society as a whole. Rushkoff believes that the internet is a great place where people can interact instantly from all over the globe. In addition, the internet has increased the flow of information throughout our society and therefore it enables people to learn using a different approach rather than always sitting in a classroom. On the other hand, Keen believes that people are spending too much time on the web and he believes that people are beginning to become lazy and sometimes even brainwashed bythe webs content. I believe that we are predominantly a web based society and that this is just another step in the process of human evolution. I think that Keen and Rushkoff would agree with me when i say that I think just like anything else, everything is ok as long as its in moderation.
2. Douglas Rushkoff and Andrew Keen seem to having opposing viewpoints on web 2.0 and its effects on society as a whole. Rushkoff believes that the internet is a great place where people can interact instantly from all over the globe. In addition, the internet has increased the flow of information throughout our society and therefore it enables people to learn using a different approach rather than always sitting in a classroom. On the other hand, Keen believes that people are spending too much time on the web and he believes that people are beginning to become lazy and sometimes even brainwashed bythe webs content. I believe that we are predominantly a web based society and that this is just another step in the process of human evolution. I think that Keen and Rushkoff would agree with me when i say that I think just like anything else, everything is ok as long as its in moderation.
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