One of my favorite Instagram tags is #subwaycreatures because it is full of point-and-shoot ridiculousness that speaks to diversity, civic engagement and humor. If there were an upside down world of subwaycreatures it would be the street-fight hashtags and the YouTube fight pages. Both are born of cultural schadenfreude and both are possible thanks to the melding of tech and TV. As I continually harp on, reality TV was not possible without advancements in digital photography, storage and non-linear editing. The same goes for social media and the platforms.
In 2019 everyone can produce content and everyone has the chance to go viral or be a ‘star’. As a result there is a dizzying library of ‘real’ moments captured. Many have become attuned to whipping out our cameras for traffic stops, birthday cakes and breathtaking views. Are you going to be the one walking down the street when a mass murderer flies a plane into NYC’s tallest building? Will you have your camera out when that epic fail happens? Every smartphone is the potential epicenter for the next cultural moment.
Reality TV’s best moments are when the unexpected happens. The produced stuff looks canned. The surprises are the best – it’s probably why the fights get so much air time on reality shows…no one fakes a punch except for the wwf and that’s a whole different realityTVtherapist post topic. Unfortunately here I’m talking REALITY with a capital D.E.A.T.H. and kids were there with their phones out to capture the moment. No one stopped down to help when help was needed.
If you have watched war footage, especially the older stuff say from the Vietnam war, it is always stunning to realize the camera person is holding steady even though all hell is breaking loose around them. The tenacity of the camera is awe inspiring and startling if you were to imagine yourself in the camera person’s shoes. The eye of the camera allows one to split off from the activity of the present and transcend the normal obligations of the moment. It is like soldiers in this respect: in that they are given special permission to kill and are therefore able to split off from the moral repugnance that murdering another human should always cause. In the same way perhaps living through the eye of the camera can create a similar illusion, separation just long enough to complete the task.
What happens when the task is to capture a meme-able or postable moment at any cost? What does it mean that we can separate ourselves from the moral demands of the moment for such a banal prize? Or is the prize actually quite large? What is at stake for those capturing the moment? Apparently quite a lot. Like soldiers, the reward for capturing the moment is perceived as greater than the reward for acting in accords with acceptable social norms. Have likes, fame, or the influencer cash overridden the prize of something far richer? Or has the internet given us permission to transcend the normal obligations of the moment?
What kind of society do we want to build now that we are at this important juncture in our timeline – namely that we have passed beyond post modern and into a new un-coined era of Tech. Imagine a world where neither soldiers nor anyone else has permission explicitly or implicitly to murder without consequence. Always there is someone somewhere else who is the bad actor. We don’t like what tech has shown us about ourselves so now lawmakers are (I believe rightfully) moving on Tech regulation. But, they are not even sure where to begin. Pulling one thread could unravel all the free stuff that is now completely woven into our fabric of day to day living. We think bringing ‘big tech’ to heel is too much of a challenge, imagine revoking permission from armies to kill. Or police departments permission to kill POC. Or Governments given permission to kill and imprison (China, The Philippines, Russia, The Oil Oligarchies). Or men permission to rape and assault. Or our own government given permission to sell weapons of murder to anyone with the bank account to cover it. Can we really tisk tisk the kids on long island when we are all standing by at all times all throughout our history living our own reality TV moments? Not hard to imagine they may be taking their cues from their elders and not from the internet at all.