Latest / The imuRgency Room / Recording Strangers for Clout Is Getting Out of Control...

Transcript

Recording Strangers for Clout Is Getting Out of Control... · The imuRgency Room

0:00
I hate to say this, but we kind of ruined fun for ourselves.
0:03
Hey guys, stuff emergency welcome.
0:04
Welcome back to my channel. Today's video is sort of a
0:07
continuation of the Genz cringe millennial cringe slash
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socialization videos that I've made in the past, but more so
0:16
about the whole surveillance culture that we kind of live in
0:20
as young people where we really normalize filming and posting
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random strangers out in public on the Internet.
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And how exactly the normalization of this behavior
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has ruined fun and also just like authentic expression both
0:32
in real life and online. This could be more of a chit
0:34
chatty culture discussion video rather than like a cold hard
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facts research driven video because this conversation is
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more so about vibes because I think the vibes have been off
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for us as young people for a while, especially with how we
0:46
act in public. And it's honestly time we talk
0:48
about it. And now I do want to make it
0:49
clear, this is not going to be like a whole like get rid of
0:51
your phone. Phones are terrible sort of
0:53
video. Because I think that that point
0:54
is just played out and also not really reflective of the times
0:57
we are in necessarily right now. But we do have to acknowledge
1:00
the fact that us having access to taking pictures and videos
1:04
and posting them wherever on your phone does not equate to it
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being right for you to do those things because oftentimes that
1:11
isn't invasion of privacy, although it may not be legally
1:13
in the state that you live in. And we're going to talk about
1:15
that because modern day surveillance culture is actually
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really wild when you think about it.
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And when I say surveillance culture, I don't mean like the
1:21
Super spy investigative or rigmarole activity that's going
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on. No, I basically mean how we as a
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culture have normalized recording and photographing
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people and then posting it publicly without that person
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that you're recording knowledge or consent.
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We're of a generation in in a world where we're all carrying
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around a camera and a potential captive audience at all times
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that reach way beyond on the bounds of just you and your
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close circle of friends laughing about someone who's like the
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monthly main character that y'all either ironically obsessed
1:48
over or in some cases make fun of because I know y'all do that.
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Oh, did you just ask who is who is you?
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You know exactly who I'm talking about.
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Don't don't try it. Please don't play.
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And in this video we're going to look to figure out where do the
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lines blur about what we should and should not post about each
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other and or random strangers. And when do we start serving as
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these modern day surveillance of each other?
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Because as many, many things are in this channel, it does get
2:14
pretty deep. But before we dig into any of
2:16
that, if you are near the channel, hello, my name is Rumi.
2:19
If you enjoy content like this, then definitely be sure to
2:21
subscribe. And if you are enjoying this
2:23
video so far, then leave a like because that helps out to talk
2:26
with the algorithm. You can always follow me on my
2:27
social site emergency on Instagram, Tiktok and Twitter
2:30
and listen to audio versions of this over on Spotify.
2:33
But that's enough self problem for now.
2:34
Let's actually talk about like where?
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How do we get here? Now I'm going to need you to
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like stay with me here because we're going to take this
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conversation, conversation over surveillance, the end of fun and
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free expression from like the macro of like celebrity and
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influencer culture down to the micro of how this has translated
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and now affects the everyday lives of all of us.
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So with that in mind, if we want to talk about the normalization
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of surveillance and specifically surveilling strangers in public,
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we can look no further in the Gen.
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Z millennial pop culture zeitgeist then back in 2014.
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Now what happened in 2014? You may be asking which unless
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you're Jan Alpha, which if you are, hey girl, how you doing?
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You may be thinking of things like fine, the release of Hunger
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Games, Mockingjay Part 1, the rampant and oftentimes
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problematic YouTube parodies, so on and so forth.
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A lot of things happened in 2014, but why that year
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specifically is important for the sake of this conversation is
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because this was the year of Alex from Target.
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Oh, did I wake up some memories. I'm sorry, I'm sorry If the
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words Alex from Target are listed a reaction from you
3:34
either of nostalgia is shame, embarrassment, or confusion then
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I'm I'm sorry. And for those of you that don't
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know who Alex from Target was or is he still alive?
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He's no longer a Target though. Alex from Target was the
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original white boy of the month. At the time, Alex Lee was a 16
3:50
year old student working part time at Target when a girl from
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a local high school snapped a quick picture of him without his
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knowledge while he was bagging her groceries and posted his
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photo to Twitter simply with the caption yo.
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And that my friends, is truly all it took.
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That's all it took. Because from that moment, the
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tweet and the hashtag Alex from Target went absolutely 2014
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viral. Then you know what that means.
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Alex went from 15 Twitter followers to over 650,000 in one
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week to over 2,000,000 followers on Instagram and got express
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shipped to the Ellen show. Because you all know back in the
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day, whenever someone would do anything remotely viral or get a
4:26
shred of Internet clout, they would be FedEx overnight ship.
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Actually, not even overnight Amazon same day delivery shipped
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to the Ellen show to talk about what it was like going viral.
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And where do you see yourself going from here?
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Like it was honestly a wild time.
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Like that era of the Internet was nuts because you could do
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both the most and the least and end up in that chair with that
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Lady. And The thing is, if you're not
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familiar with this situation, Alex from Target really only
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went viral because at the time, people thought he was really
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attractive. And this wasn't the first time
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that someone went super viral just for the sake of their
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looks. But this was such an extreme
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case and honestly one of the first pop main pop culture
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moments for like our generation of someone blowing up under such
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a candid and unplanned and unconsenting circumstance.
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That single picture changed Alex from Target's life and was and
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cemented him always as being Alex from Target.
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Within a few weeks and months of him getting this name, he'd have
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his phone number leaked, he'd have kids from local high
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schools go to his high school just for a chance to meet him,
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his teachers asking him for photographs and autographs, he
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signed to managers. He was having brand deals and
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really tried to do the whole influencer thing.
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And there was a lot of pressure on his head to continue pumping
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out content indices this moment, these 5 minutes of fame, to try
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and make as much of it as he could.
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In a quote, he shares that people around me were saying
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that I'm missing a big opportunity if I were to quit
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and others were sending me death threats, jealous that it
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happened to me and not them. I gave too much power to the
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management team and those around me and I just went on autopilot
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mode and went with it. Ultimately, Alex decided that
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influencer life wasn't for him and he ended up walking away
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from it all and now allegedly works at UPS.
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And he says that that's a lot more fulfilling for him and he's
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just not as much on socials now, which honestly, good for him.
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He states that I never wanted to be Alex from Target.
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Absolutely not. And though he has no regrets
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from the moment, he ended up having to grow up very quickly,
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learning a lot about people and people who don't always have his
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best intention and mind. And this example was so
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interesting because he didn't go viral for someone secretly
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recording him, like singing his ass off or like showing any
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necessary talent. It was just him clocking in to a
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regular day of work and someone taking a picture of him
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literally bagging their groceries.
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And it launched his life into a stratosphere that he honestly
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did not ask for. And like, while this is a really
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niche example and one that people may deem as like a net
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positive, like, yeah, you got some that you got some money.
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Why are you complaining? This was considered to be a
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lucky case because this is a case where the reaction to him
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was very positive and he was able to get opportunities from
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that. But that's not always the case
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for people that are randomly recorded and posted on the
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Internet. Because imagine how that would
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affect him if the reaction was the opposite.
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I'm dropping it. Like imagine you had a dream
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gate situation and people were like being nasty to him in
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comments. Now I'll take a step back and
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talk about the evolution of surveillance from the benefits
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of being surveilled and watched to the ultimate harms.
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There's no way to start this conversation without talking
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about paparazzi culture. Undeniable that paparazzi shaped
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the brunt of celebrity culture in the 90s and early 2000s.
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We imagine the very loud, very bald, very aggressive grown men
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who'd be greedy for money trying to just get a second, a single
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snapshot of a celeb off duty just living their life.
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And to a certain extent, this was like actually harassment.
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Like thinking back to the cutthroat era of Britney Spears,
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Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, like this era was borderline
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unsafe. And it was also known as the
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gold rush era for paparazzi. Or celebrity photos could earn
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you a good piece of pocket change just from royalties with
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celebrity just like US photos bringing a photographer anywhere
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from 5 to $15,000 per photo of a celebrity.
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Just like doing normal things in public, like pumping gas.
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This was an era where the expectation was like, if you're
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a celebrity, you're kind of setting up for your private life
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to become your public life. I don't agree with that fully
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100%. I think everyone is entitled to
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some form of privacy. But paparazzi culture has really
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shifted since then. Like, social media has allowed
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for celebs to really take back some the power over the photos
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that are taken of them. And my mind races to Beyoncé of
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like, anytime a paparazzi will like, catch her in an outfit,
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she will post the outfit that she was in so that the paparazzi
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can't make money off of that because she's already posted it.
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But then something interesting happens in the 20 tens when the
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rise of the social media influencer really starts to take
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hold in the pop culture zeitgeist.
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You have a new category of famous people that aren't quite
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celebrities but also aren't regular people.
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Internet famous people from YouTube or Tumblr or Vine really
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start blurring lines between like a celebrity and the general
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public. And soon enough you'd see the
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birth of things like the Hollywood Fix.
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And for those of you that had a life and weren't chronically
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online, the Hollywood Fix would basically follow around
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different Youtubers, tik tokers, whatever would have you
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influencers around LA and would report very paparazzi style on
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their platforms. Allegedly a lot of those
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paparazzi encounters were set up, I don't know, meaning they
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would call the paparazzi or the Hollywood Fix on themselves.
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And The Hollywood Fix brought us many moments, including prepare
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Yourself this gem. Nowadays it's pretty common
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knowledge that paparazzi is now basically just a tool for
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promotion from influencers and celebrities, with most of them
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calling the paparazzi on themselves to try and make a
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moment. Like I think of that one
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paparazzi shot where like Addison Ray is like reading some
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book in public while she's walking.
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Like girl that was set up boots. According to Aaron Parfitt, a
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Manchester based paparazzo. I think a lot of people are
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quite dumb to how it works. People think we are scumbags
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hanging out of trees, but these celebrities are ringing us.
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He estimates that 80% of his shots are set up in advance.
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I've been on holiday with celebrities and most of them are
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reality stars. We go to Spain, shoot 6 bikini
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sets and stick them out throughout the month.
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Like there are so many planned paparazzi shoots, with one
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iconic one being when Selena Gomez was spotted reading to
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kids at a park not even more than like a day after her and
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Justin got caught looking for substances in Skid Row.
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Like it's truly a wild world there.
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But I say all this to say that there has really been a shift in
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this aspect of celebrity culture that has been passed down to the
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rest of us as the alliance have continued to blur between what
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is celebrity and what is an average person with the advent
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of algorithmic social media. Like we live in an era of like
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decentralized fame where anyone could become famous at any time
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based on what you post online. And to a certain extent, there
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has been a widening definition of what is a celebrity and what
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is an influencer to the point where, like I said, Dang near
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anyone can attain it. And while this is it's great for
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like economic opportunities, like social mobility for a lot
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of people, this really does create problems when it comes to
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things like expectations of privacy when it comes to who is
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subjected to the public eye or not.
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Because everyone is technically a content creator through one
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way or another. Does that mean that they're also
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subject to having their privacy be violated in a public sense
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because they are consenting to the lifestyle that potentially
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having fame and potentially having a platform allegedly
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binds you to in the social contract of fame or notoriety or
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whatever? My answer to that is like, no.
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I think with how culture has shifted recently in regards to
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social media and having access to cameras, phones, and like I
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said, a captive audience at all times.
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It feels like the current unwritten social contract allows
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for people to sort of imply your consent to being recorded in
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general and posted online by just being a person out in
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public or even in some cases in private, which should not and is
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not the case, but is what we've been seeing not really quick?
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And I think that this topic is so interesting because there is
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like no like definite, like right or wrong answer because
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again, everything has nuance and requires context.
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Like in some cases, yes, it is perfectly justifiable and
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honestly probably the right thing to record, post and expose
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people with and as evidence to warn people against really
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unsafe people and behaviors that could be dangerous or harmful.
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Like spreading that awareness. I think great thing.
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And being able to capture something in the moment and
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share with people does also feel really good.
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Like having one of those like just general life moments, like
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a one in a million moment. Like, I can't believe this is
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what's happening right now. Moment is great to record and
12:29
great to share with people. But I think there definitely is
12:31
a fine line where like, is this something where you are
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spreading awareness or like enjoying life?
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Or is this just like bullying and voyeurism?
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And while this may potentially be a more extreme case, I think
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that the rise in people just recording in public has created
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a sort of fear and a lot of people of being recorded in
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public. I have a really big fear of
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being recorded in public without my permission, and it seriously
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contributes to just how bad my anxiety is, especially regarding
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leaving the house. And every single time a video
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goes viral that involves recording someone without their
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permission, that feeling just gets so much worse.
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The way we have completely normalized filming strangers is
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insane. Like what happened to privacy?
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Like you can't just record people, y'all?
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Like that's actually like not OK.
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And they were having a personal moment.
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And yes, I know it is legal in most states to record people in
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public without their consent. But I think we're getting to a
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point where you're just getting too comfortable with that and
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we're taking it too far. Because there's a difference
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from like recording people and just sharing it with like your
13:45
friends to like recording people and like posting it online for
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millions and millions of people to give judgment, thoughts,
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opinions and discourse about. We've seen so much Internet
13:55
discourse take place online, whether that be on Twitter or on
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TikTok about a situation between people who did not know that
14:00
they're being recorded and or did not know that they were
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being recorded and posted online.
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And then you have people dissecting behaviors for like
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weeks online being like, oh, is that person weird?
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Or like, oh, This is why I don't show up this way in public.
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Or oh, This is why I don't wear this in the club.
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Like, what are we doing? What are we talking about right
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now? Like we are actually the cops to
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ourselves. Like it feels like it really
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can't be caught lacking in public these days.
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Like, of course, it's always like the appreciating someone's
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outfit, like recording someone's outfit on the train or like
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walking around the street being like, oh wow, they ate that.
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Like can we gas them up? Like that's lovely, amazing, but
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do we really need to romanticize strangers like be in people's
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business? Like I think I saw a clip where
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someone was recording a couple having a very like heated
14:38
passionate argument or like maybe they were breaking up and
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they put some romantic bam Cam edit as music behind it being
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like me one day. Like, girl, what are you talking
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about? You are unwell.
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Why? Like what would what would bring
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you to know something like that? Like that is insane because I
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will be mad as hell if I just got done having a heated
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conversation with my partner, either breaking up with them or
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God forbid I'm the one getting broken up with.
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And I hop on my for you page and I see myself on the verge of
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tears from a third person point of view with you belong with me
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by Taylor Swift playing in the background.
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And the words need this overlaid over my tears.
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Like I would be sick and you all are sick for doing that.
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Like hello, do we not see the issue here?
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And the fact that this is a real possibility for a lot of people,
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for really anybody in public has really instilled the fear or at
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least the hyper vigilance of the potential of being recorded out
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in public, more so specifically recorded, posted, and then
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mocked and bleed into Internet fame or whatever negative
15:38
equivalent that is. Like it feels like we live in a
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time where like you don't truly have full control over your
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privacy and also getting posted online without your knowledge
15:46
does open you up to a lot of criticism that you did not ask
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for. Like, have you read Instagram
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comments ever? Have you been down any Twitter
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thread ever? Perhaps open a TikTok comment
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section of someone being publicly recorded.
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Circle back with me. OK, Like those platforms really
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do give next level hating and it's so creative because
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especially for TikTok, there are a lot of hate prevention
16:05
filters. So the way in which people will
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find a way to read you and find a way to talk some to sometimes
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be the most poetic around about insult sandwich ass comment.
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We're like, you're like what? At a certain point you can't be
16:19
mad because the creativity was actually quite clever like that
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you, that was kind of clever. You ate that.
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You were wrong as hell, but you ate that one thing right there.
16:30
On a serious note, at the end of the day, like this really does
16:32
normalize cyber bullying and it shows like people mocking your
16:36
appearance or your actions or really anything about you based
16:40
on a video that gets posted of you.
16:42
And people are afraid to get bullied online, rightfully so.
16:44
It's not fun because at best you have people making jokes about
16:47
you or calling you ugly or whatever and like that fades,
16:50
but at worst the bullying and mocking can get really bad and
16:52
you can end up in positions like where I've talked about my
16:56
previous videos specifically about slurs.
16:58
It can sometimes look like death threats, entirely untrue and
17:01
fabricated narratives being spun about you in your life, real
17:04
life doxing and you guessed it, slurs.
17:07
Speaking of which, what happened to the anti bullying campaigns
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like Hillary Duff? Where are you at?
17:11
You know, you really shouldn't say that.
17:13
And the ultimate effect and how this gets to the general point
17:16
of the video and all you all have been waiting for me to make
17:17
a point, is the effects of us being hyper aware of us being
17:21
surveilled by ourselves is that we see a sort of depth and
17:24
authenticity and fun. And where do we see this mostly
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show up at? You guessed it, or maybe you
17:29
didn't. The club.
17:30
Club culture has been on the decline for a while, especially
17:33
post the bid. There's been tons of expressed
17:35
discontentment online about club culture, about it not really
17:38
being anything but like overpriced drinks, people just
17:41
standing around looking at each other, section culture.
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And it really feels like every generation.
17:46
But Gen. Z got like their really core
17:49
party girl club rat era when the clubs and being outside was at
17:53
its peak. Now, for the reasons that we've
17:55
stated, in addition to the fear of being caught lacking, it's
17:59
just not the same. It's not fun.
18:01
And I think we really underplay how much the fear of
18:03
surveillance, the fear of being recorded, the fear of like
18:06
online persecution really does play into why people act the way
18:09
that they do at the club. Because for one, phones are
18:11
always out, people are always recording, people are always
18:13
trying to get that story being like, Oh my God, I'm outside,
18:14
I'm having so much fun and let me try and get a clip of like,
18:17
Oh my God, the club is so crazier or like those, Oh my
18:19
God, This is why I don't go out videos.
18:21
You know, you're not just recording your friends, You're
18:23
not just recording the scenery, You're not just recording the
18:25
ambience anymore. And the videos that you're doing
18:27
these things on aren't just living on your personal story or
18:31
going to your friends group chats.
18:33
They are going to larger scale platforms, whether you're the
18:36
one posting them or someone's reposting them on things like
18:38
Twitter and TikTok, where now instead of like you and like
18:41
your 10 closest friends or like 200 story viewers, they're all
18:44
laughing at at someone dancing or acting crazy in the club.
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It is thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, if not millions of
18:49
people making fun of this person who simply was just trying to
18:52
have a good time at the club and dance, which you're supposed to
18:54
do at the club. And whether or not it's that
18:56
serious or widely applicable like that is something that is
18:59
in people's minds. People are more aware now of how
19:01
they're being perceived and how they could potentially be
19:02
recorded and also how they could be ridiculed online for how
19:06
they're acting. So in a sense, we're kind of
19:08
hypercorectic. We, again, like I said, we are
19:10
being the cops for ourselves. We are monitoring our own
19:13
behavior, which then ultimately kind of gets rid of the fun
19:16
because there's nothing fun about standing around doing a
19:18
little 2 step and looking around the room, like, have fun cut
19:22
loose. That's why you're at the club,
19:24
to have some fun, to make some bad decisions.
19:28
There's this video of millennials saying that.
19:29
Like, something she's noticed about Gen.
19:30
Z is that, like, when we're outside and when we're dancing
19:33
in clubs, we don't usually put our hands above our heads.
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Like, we don't put our hands in the air.
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Like, we just don't care no more.
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Especially when we're dancing. Like, it mostly sticks here.
19:42
We're like, it'll go here. It's never like a full white
19:44
girl dancing, hands up in the air.
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Like whimsy. Like bring back whimsy in the
19:48
club. So I saw this video a few months
19:51
ago saying that Gen. Z does not know how to dance
19:54
properly. Like they won't put their arms
19:56
above their head when they dance.
19:57
And I went clubbing this weekend and.
20:01
I can't believe this I'm saying this, but that actually was what
20:04
I was witnessing. They either had a drink in their
20:07
hand, which is totally fine, it's kind of hard to balance all
20:10
that above your head anyway. Or they were doing just like
20:13
little step touches with their arms, kind of like in either,
20:15
like, I don't, I don't know what to describe it.
20:18
I wasn't really paying attention because I was having a good
20:21
time, just like living it up. So yeah, I'm just very confused.
20:25
Does Gen. Z know how to have fun?
20:27
And the thing about this is like, this sort of behavior,
20:30
this sort of like nonchalance, openness to recording other
20:32
people and posting online behavior is rewarded like
20:35
monetarily and socially. People don't just record people
20:38
for no reason. Like, yeah, there are people
20:39
that are just mean and we'll just do it to be vindictive.
20:42
But there is an incentive for you to catch a wild moment.
20:45
There is an incentive for you to catch something that's like out
20:47
the blue, something that is like more authentic and more real.
20:50
And that's because those are the type of videos that blow up on
20:52
social media. They're the videos that get
20:53
attention and they're the videos that can then get you some money
20:57
through the creator fund or the Adsense or whatever, what have
21:00
you. And that if it doesn't give you
21:01
a monetary hit, definitely gives you a dopamine hit to see that
21:04
your video is going viral and people are all laughing with
21:06
you. And in this case, thankfully not
21:09
at you. But all that's for what you're
21:11
driving the stake into the heart of fun, whimsy and cringe deeper
21:15
and deeper for a video that nine times out of 10 and isn't long
21:17
enough to be even monetized in the TikTok creator fund.
21:19
Like, was it really that worth it?
21:21
Like, was the damage done that worth it?
21:24
And I do think that like, we as like viewers also do play into
21:27
that because, you know, we are the ones watching and engaging
21:30
with it. Like these numbers were people
21:31
engaging and talking about and partaking in discourse aren't
21:34
coming out of nowhere. This play, unfortunately, is
21:37
about us. So we are also by contributing
21:39
to the views, to the comments, to watching and sharing these
21:42
videos, we're contributing to this behavior being normalized.
21:46
And like this is totally not the point and completely off point.
21:48
Actually probably counter intuitive to the point or
21:51
whatever point I'm trying to make in this video.
21:53
But like imagine like if we normalized recording the people
21:56
that are recording, like imagine a whole series of someone
21:59
recording like back to I forget which sprouse it was, but like
22:03
taking pictures of the person, taking pictures of him recording
22:05
the person that's trying to or a farm or like really trying to
22:08
record a moment with someone like living authentically and
22:10
like just being themselves. Like let's start shaming the
22:13
behavior of shaming the behavior.
22:16
Like not to promote self policing even more, but like,
22:18
hey. Club culture is certainly not
22:20
dead because people don't want to wear heels to the club
22:21
anymore, and that's coming from somebody who loves to wear
22:24
heels. When I go out dancing, club
22:25
culture is dead because we don't socialize anymore.
22:28
Everybody goes in the club and stand around and look at each
22:30
other. And whether that's because of
22:31
our increasing lack of social skills or because we're too
22:34
sober and the drinks are too expensive, people are not really
22:36
dancing anymore. Club culture is dead because the
22:38
music is trash. You go to a white club, you're
22:41
going to be the entire night and the music never changes.
22:44
The Music Choice for the EDM genre is often overwhelming and
22:47
it's not good dancing music. It's good music to listen to if
22:50
you're driving or running or something like that.
22:52
And if you go to a predominantly black club, you're just singing
22:54
the entire night. Because most of the songs are
22:56
not party songs to dance anymore.
22:58
Like the only time I see people act litty titty is when they
23:00
play like sexy red or maybe some Cardi B and Nicki Minaj.
23:03
But nowadays the songs are just about hood rapping and gangbang
23:07
and Bang Bang and all that nonsense.
23:08
The music is not fun anymore, it's too serious.
23:10
But in both case scenarios it's always awkward because it's like
23:13
a large amount of dudes just walking around seeking out women
23:16
and the women are just kind of huddled up together in a corner
23:18
seeking at men And maybe for fear of being made fun of and
23:21
posted online. Nobody wants to dance because
23:23
they don't know how to dance anything other than TikTok
23:25
dances. Overall club culture is dead
23:27
because clubbing is not fun anymore.
23:29
Oh I almost forgot, how do you want us to dance if you give us
23:31
no space to dance? 50% of the club space is
23:34
literally seating areas that you have to pay for.
23:36
You're literally paying $139 for flavored nicotine, a small ass
23:40
Ciroc bottle, and some trash as cranberry juice.
23:43
But the wings are great. Now, let's take a little step
23:46
into talking about cringe culture because we've talked
23:48
about cringe before in previous videos.
23:49
We've hinted at cringe a bit in this video already.
23:52
But let's really talk about what the bee and potatoes of this all
23:56
is. Because at the end of the day,
23:58
what we're highlighting, what's being posted a lot of times can
24:00
be cringe. And the fear of being posted
24:03
online is the fear of being cringe.
24:05
And I think that we as Gen. Z really are shackled in many
24:08
ways due to our fear of cringe. Like I am a victim of it too.
24:11
I'm, I too fear being cringe. But I think like doing what I
24:16
do, you kind of got to lean into it a little bit more.
24:18
And I think all of us can afford to lean into being cringe a
24:22
little bit more and stop being the cops, like stop policing
24:25
each other's harmless behavior. Like I get like holding people
24:28
accountable for actual like harmful stuff.
24:30
But like being yourself, being a little cringe, being a little
24:34
hyper authentic or just a little weird, there's nothing wrong
24:37
with that. And like this aversion to it and
24:39
like this need to like conform and be this like nonchalant
24:43
entity. Constantly moderating and
24:45
monitoring your responses to things is not healthy and also
24:48
does no one any good. Like we've really made the
24:50
concept of cringe into a pariah. And if you don't know what
24:52
cringe culture is, it's mentioned in this medium article
24:55
as being essentially the subculture claiming the moral
24:58
high ground over others, condemning what behaviors are
25:00
worth mocking and creating a divide of us and them on the
25:03
Internet, which is a shocker to absolutely no one.
25:06
Like it gives you an to hate. It gives people an excuse to
25:09
make fun of things that make them a little uncomfortable for
25:11
being a little too raw, a little too real.
25:13
Like I'm never going to apologize for being too raw and
25:15
being too real. Like let's just let's talk about
25:18
it, OK? Cringe culture has brought us
25:20
nowhere. Like being afraid to be a little
25:22
quirky, being afraid to be a little silly, being afraid to
25:24
look stupid gets you actually nowhere.
25:27
And actually, if we want to be real, if you want to talk like
25:30
actual money, since that's what seems to move people, the people
25:33
that tend to be the most successful, the people that tend
25:36
to actually be innovators in the space, tend to actually do
25:39
things also happen to be the people that are the most cringe.
25:42
And people that tend to embrace and not fear cringe or learn to
25:46
turn off or mute their cringe meter.
25:48
Because I'm just going to be real.
25:50
You're not going to get anywhere in life.
25:51
You're constantly afraid of being cringe or being gringy to
25:53
people Like, hello, it's going to happen.
25:55
Like think of all the unhinged and very awkward celebrity
25:59
moments you've seen. Think of all the ones that are
26:01
circulating on the Internet, That alone just picking up
26:03
volumes to like, yeah, everyone is kind of cringe and that
26:06
doesn't hurt. And I do think things are
26:08
starting to change. I think people are starting to
26:10
acknowledge the fact that, like, nonchalance is not really
26:12
serving anybody. It's not really helping
26:14
anything. And there has been a strong push
26:16
for Chalons, although when it comes specifically to
26:19
heterosexual men, I have been seeing pushback, not
26:22
specifically from them, but like about the whole, like, sassy man
26:25
apocalypse. And I think in that case, I'm
26:27
never in the business of particularly defending straight
26:29
men. If you are a straight man
26:31
watching a, I'm going to be with you, but you know, not
26:35
necessarily who I'm jumping to defend right away.
26:37
That being said, though, we can't continue to hold the
26:40
double standard. Like, yeah, we want people to
26:42
show up and be more cringe and be more authentic and then like
26:45
also moderate how far that can go being like, oh, no, sorry,
26:49
you're too sassy or you're too expressive or you're too you're
26:53
showing too much personality. Like, what is that saying?
26:55
What is that saying? Quickly?
26:56
We definitely need to extend more grace to everybody to be
27:00
more themselves and be more authentic, be themselves as long
27:02
as they're not being harmful or able to anyone like that should
27:06
not be too much of an ask. But we keep talking about
27:07
authenticity, authentic this, authentic that.
27:09
What is authenticity? Like?
27:10
Let's talk about it, OK? Authenticity has been defined as
27:14
the characteristic of being genuine and real.
27:15
And the notion becomes a little bit more complex when we're
27:17
talking about the modern day surveillance culture that we
27:19
currently live under. The Hawthorne effect was a study
27:22
connected about how people alter their behavior specifically in
27:24
the workplace when they knew that they were being watched,
27:26
ultimately resulting in increased output when watched.
27:29
And this study doesn't only apply to the workplace, it can
27:32
apply to pretty much any social situation, which is why we feel
27:35
so different or so awkward or so like on guard when we're being
27:38
recorded without us knowing or us being ready or consenting to
27:42
be recorded. Which begs the question, if we
27:44
are constantly feeling watched and surveilled, are we ever
27:47
really being such? Can we ever truly be authentic?
27:51
My lovely researcher for this video said that she wanted to
27:53
give her two cents and says that speaking for herself, even when
27:55
she is alone, she sometimes catches herself imagining what
27:58
she looks like from another perspective.
28:00
Reflexively, she straightens up her posture or lifts her chin to
28:02
strength in that jawline. And have had many friends relate
28:05
to this experience. And honestly speaking
28:07
personally, yeah, there are many times you kind of got to catch
28:10
yourself and lock back in. Like sometimes you're just kind
28:12
of slouch and just there and then you remember I'm existing
28:14
in a context right now. Let me lock in like when did we
28:20
really start becoming our own surveillance?
28:21
Like we always talk about FBI agent, this FBI agent, that
28:24
girl, you are the FBI agent and this hyper vigilance is tiring.
28:29
And as a little side point to this, like this is more
28:31
tangential and I'm not sure if this necessarily relates 100%,
28:34
but I think it's kind of related and it might be a reach, but
28:37
we've talked a lot about how we censor our behavior and censor
28:40
the way that we show up in real life circumstances because we're
28:43
afraid of being watched. I think that there also can be
28:45
some overlap with like censoring our speech in everyday life,
28:49
like specifically when it comes to algorithmic speak.
28:51
And what I mean by this is like there's been an uptick of
28:53
people, myself included, y'all call me out for it all the time
28:56
of people using online verbiage or online words that are used to
29:00
get around different barriers in the algorithm, whether that be
29:03
demonetization or like shadow banning words like unalived, Pew
29:07
Pew grape. And I'll stop there because we
29:10
are on platform right now. And you know, how this platform
29:12
looks to get down honestly is really jarring to hear people
29:16
talk like that in real life. And many do.
29:18
I've caught myself like unalived in person a couple of times.
29:21
And I say it all the time in these videos for the sake of
29:24
avoiding consequence or censorship for my content.
29:27
But the fact that it's slowly been translating into real life
29:30
really makes you wonder like, who are we censoring ourselves
29:32
from in real life? Like, let's be real.
29:34
And I think it's going to be so interesting to see how John
29:36
Alpha grows up, whether or not they will adopt the same sort of
29:38
linguistical censorship or it's going to be like the complete
29:41
opposite and the complete rejection of any sort of
29:44
censored language or anything cool.
29:46
They could go either way. To be honest.
29:47
I'm going to need the linguist and the dialect academics to
29:50
really sound off in the comments.
29:51
Let me know what you think because I think that could be
29:52
really interesting. But all of this is to say how
29:54
pervasive surveillance culture and cringe culture seeps into
29:59
our everyday lives, affecting us and molding us in ways that we
30:03
may be intentionally or unintentionally not.
30:05
And this is a say that we need to a, put down the judgement
30:07
that we have for people, especially for people that we
30:10
don't know and don't really have business recording, and B, just
30:13
be less afraid of showing up authentically.
30:16
And cringely, the level of cover that we have with recording
30:19
strangers online is interesting for sure.
30:22
Definitely something that we should look at a little bit
30:24
further and figure out like, are we really cool with this or no?
30:28
Because we really do have to be mindful about how we engage in
30:30
things that are both online and offline because as fun as they
30:34
can be at their best, at their worse, they can be very harmful
30:38
both for the individual and as we've seen, for the culture at
30:41
large. Because at the end of the day,
30:43
as we've seen, surveillance has been killing fun and we need to
30:47
stop it. Especially in the times we're
30:49
living in now. We need more fun than ever.
30:51
But yeah, y'all, that's going to be it for this video.
30:53
Like I said before, this is more of a yap, just more of a chit
30:56
chatty conversation about something that I've been seeing
30:58
going on just in the spaces of the Internet and in real life
31:00
that I've been in and that I've heard my friends also talk
31:03
about. So I'd love to hear your
31:04
thoughts down the comments below like have you to experience
31:06
this? Do you know what I'm talking
31:07
about or am I just talking to talk?
31:10
Let me know all your thoughts down in the comments below.
31:12
Thanks again for watching again. If you knew the channel, then
31:14
definitely subscribe, leave a like and follow me on my social
31:16
site emergency on Instagram, tick tock and Twitter.
31:18
Other than that, y'all, I've an emergency and I'll see you in
31:21
the next video. Peace.