Written for Interactive Media Studies at The New School with Doug Rushkoff

A Manifesto.

    It is not too late to say what you feel. Every time you let one of those little emoticons slip into your technologically mediated communications you let a little bit of your humanity slip away. An emoticon is an inadequate and irresponsible stand in for real emotions. And more so, it is an insult to the human ability to express. Each of us, currently has the right to speak about how we feel to each other. And we have a right to transmit that, in most cases, through a variety of text-based medium. Do not take that lightly. Your personal communications are political. There have been times and there are places today, where you must us symbols to stand in for feelings in order to avoid persecution. The ability to express is not a given politically nor is it a given practically; we must learn it though practice and experimentation. Consider each emoticon you choose to eliminate, as an exercise in freedom and practice of expression. Practice the written expression of your emotions with abandon! Use language. At a loss for words? Then say that, or explore a thesaurus. Make up language, if the words you find won’t do. Every colon followed by closed parentheses is a missed opportunity for an expression of human joy. Just think about all the deliciously, salty language experiences we miss out on when someone chooses to express themselves with a semi-colon, closed parentheses rather than a full description of their thoughts at that moment. Emoticons are feelings for computers. And you, as much as, you may like to think otherwise, are not a computer. Fundamental our experience as a humans, is attempting to express feeling, failing or succeeding, and in the process, creating beauty and understanding. Trust that the thoughtful choice of words will mean, as much if not more, than the immediacy of your response, for every emoticon you eliminate from your communications is a small heroic human act.  

The internet is an amazing place to work, play and live but it is also a confusing mess. I am trying to get better at writing about it, to figure out my own boundaries here and hopefully be helpful to other people who struggle to understand their place here. I originally wrote this essay for Technologies of Persuasion with Douglas Rushkoff at The New School, October 2009. I finally got around to making some edits to it and wanted to share it.  I welcome your comments.

Narcissus by Caravaggio@narcissus can you give me a hand here, I think I'm drowning ;)  

               Check out Ye Olde Narcissus, the beautiful young man, who in a self-absorbed trance, is unable to tell the difference between himself and his reflection. His name is thought to be derived from the greek narkē meaning ‘numbness,’ and in his trance he is numb, so numb that he drowns. How embarrassing for him. Today, in a sea of self created reflections, it is far too easy to indulge in our own narcissistic tendencies, with seemingly little consequence. And just as easy to look at others who are drowning and not feel any responsibility. Increasingly, the tools we use for social connection double as reflective surfaces intended to trap us in our own trance of self love.    

     Initially, I sat down to write a light-hearted piece about how to tell the difference between real people and fake people on the internet.

Real people being, you know, your mom, and fake people I assumed, would be brands, “brand ambassadors”, and worst of all those involved in the shameless art of “personal branding”. I thought it would be fairly easy to devise a kind of Turing test which we could apply to help root out the “friends” from the friends. However, as I compared various individuals activities on Facebook and Twitter I found it was more challenging than I'd expected to set a standard for human-ness within the confines of online personal profiles. Here everyone is reduced to a charming, trading card version of themselves; all the quirky profile icons, each representing the identity of a different friend, a collection of words, links, photos that serve as a mnemonic device for recalling individuals I once knew in the flesh.  As I looked at all of my trading card friends, I realized there was no way I could point a finger at any of them for being fakes, they were simply doing as the medium asked of them, as was I.    

        Connect! Share! This is the persistent call from the internet, today. Sites like YouTube and Twitter are built entirely upon the human desire to do just that. But parallel forces are at work. Of course we all want to connect, its in our nature. I want to show photos of myself to my family and see a video of my friends' kids being adorable, I want to tell friends about an interesting article I read. But the way these sites intertwine earnest connecting and sharing with a non-stop public performance is dubious and requires some closer inspection. First of all we need to always remember that these corporate structures for group participation, are just that. All of this public sharing of personal information is taking place on private property. These private properties are businesses with typical business bottom lines. Their goal will always be to make money. No matter if their website tells you that they are here to help you connect, share, make friends etc. all you have to do is look for the 'terms of service' or 'advertise' link in 8 point type at the bottom of the site, to see the other side of this business model. Make no mistake, while these sites may be entertaining and helpful, they are exploitive. All effective persuasion works by taking advantage of preexisting human tendencies and what could be more human than narcissism.    

        Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the innumerable other social networking tools we have become dependent on to navigate the internet as a public space, exploit this most predictable of human tendencies for commercial ends. We are being trained to create database versions of our identities, neat and categorical, a fill-in-the-blank persona which can be slotted into demographic and psycho-graphic types that can be sold off to the highest bidder. While this ultimately may not prove be as dire as narcissus' condition, we need to understand how this makes us weak. Maintaining online identities, through which we manage real relationships with real people is effecting how we has humans see ourselves. To successfully telescope ones identity online through these tools we must flatten and become an iconic version of self. The more iconic and symbolic the better - these iconic identities can then be rated and valued based on clicks and friends. The value is public and continues to help drive further increase in value. The way you see yourself establishes a sense of self worth. Establishing a sense of self worth based predominantly on the externalized value in the internet identity market is the slippery slope to a real narcissistic personality disorder.

     The story of Narcissus has persisted in culture for so long because its lesson, is one that has always been needed. But look around and you will be hard pressed to find any similar allegory, today, because the engines of commerce have become dependent upon the obliteration of a Narcissus' lesson. We are getting trained to build mirror images of ourselves, that we can constantly check in on, update and reference. The modern Narcissus' is egged on by the “What are you doing?” box on Twitter and the echo of the resulting 're-Tweets' and @replies of a hundred of other Narcissuses'.She does not merely come upon her image in a calm pool, but is completely surrounded by reflections of herself. She participates in the constant reproduction of her image. She feels empowered by the technologies that do this, she is confident that she is in control. And yet, there is a third party implicated in this situation. Unlike Narcissus she is not locked in a gaze with her mirror image, she is looking at me, you, her audience, her followers, her friends, while she holds a camera with its mechanical eye pointed at her. Such triangulation represents for me a far more powerful force than Olde Narcissus could have ever felt. Should this trance be interrupted is she not at risk of tripping backwards and fall in? Narcissus' enchantment made him unable to tell the difference between himself and his reflection but the modern narcissus is so numb that she appears completely unaware that she is surrounded by water, which I can help but imagine rising with each new video she publishes.    

        With no modern parables to warn against the dangers of narcissism we are culturally, at risk. For unchecked vanity, becomes vulnerability. Because I don't believe in throwing the baby with the bathwater, I do think we can learn to use these tools without becoming tools. I appreciate Douglas Rushkoff's uplifting assertion that new media “allows people to relegate the inhuman parts of themselves to the machines, while preserving the human for the real world.” However, until we can identify the reflection from the self we will probably have trouble determining such distinctions.

Advertising agency Mother decided to give their entire holiday gifting budget to one person. How they went about this will make you laugh but what happens to the money in the end is really quite heart warming.

This is by far the most creative agency holiday card I have ever seen! Nice example of having fun and doing good, all the while creating a great bit of digital marketing for themselves.

And in light of that, I continue my list of organizations which I'll be making donations to with my final paycheck of the year.

Thankfully, KEXP arrived on my dial and now I Wake Up! to great music every morning and since they are committed to live music, most sets feature songs from bands playing in NYC the very same week/month. This is what radio should be! They also feature radio documentaries about music history and exclusive live performances which bring you even closer to amazing new indy musicians in a range of genres.

Be sure to go to their site download some of their excellent podcasts - my ipod is dominated by Music That Matters and Song of The Day - your ears will thank you.

Click here if you also want to make a year end donation to KEXP!

Time to put my money where my mouth is - I will be taking my last paycheck of the 2009 calendar year and donating it to a variety of organizations which support independent creative projects. Trust me its not because I have the cash to spare, I live in NYC for goodness sake!

I am going to post about each of the organizations over the course of this month.

Feel free to send me any suggestions for orgs I should add to my 2009 donations list. I am specifically interested in learning about any that have helped you or your friends (or just artists you admire) with their creative work, this year.

The first organization I have chosen to donate to is WET  - this is a production company that supports women writers.

Here's how they explain their mission:

Equal opportunity still does not exist in the entertainment industry.

Only 17% of theater productions in the US are written by women
Only 16% of theater productions in the US are directed by women
Only 15% of film directors, producers, writers, and editors in the US are women.
Only 20% of film studio executives working in the US are women*

Additionally, the representation of women and girls in the media is often based in stereotype, and sets up impossible and unhealthy expectations women and girls feel they must live up to.

According to studies, Women and girls of all body types are equally and negatively affected after viewing pictures of models in magazine ads for just three minutes**

Teen-age girls who viewed commercials depicting women who modeled the unrealistically thin-ideal type of beauty caused adolescent girls to feel less confident, more angry and more dissatisfied with their weight and appearance.***

If we continue to accept the under-representation and misrepresentation of women in the media, an industry that defines and reflects our culture, then we are responsible for supporting and perpetuating inequality.

This is not a woman’s issue, this is a human issue.

I couldn't agree more! And they produced my brilliant friends' show I Eat Pandas this year on Off B'way

If you need any convincing of the shameful dearth of women's voices and the lack of variety in the ones which are represented, please read NYT Film critic Manohla Dargis article about the state of women in Holloywood in 2009.

Click here if you also want to give WET a gift this holiday season!

A gift from, one of my favorite artist, Yoko Ono. It is for the 40th anniversary of her and John Lennon's brilliant, War Is Over peace advertising campaign.

She has made this poster available in many languages on her site Imagine Peace.com - where you can watch a great video with John explaining the project.

A series of commercials with the tag-line "Time for some new traditions?" serves up a narcissistic perspective on gifting just in time for the holidays!

At first look, this commercial could be seen as celebrating the wacky creativity of making up fun festive foods, but this is not the case. Several normal-type actors proudly present their off beat edible creations to the camera. Their faces are hopeful and eager to please you. However, by the time the tagline appears at the end of the commercial it is clear that you are supposed to feel sad for these people. And sure enough, the link which popped up after watching this video within a banner ad directed me to Target's website to order entire ready-made holiday meals (link). Read: spare yourself the embarrassment.

The other commercial in this series follow suit.

In this scenario you observe two couples exchanging gifts. Couple 1 gives Couple 2 a Blu Ray player (a little extravagant, no?). In return, with the same eager goofy smiles, couple 2 presents couple 1 with a macrame covered boombox (ok, that actually is awesome!) which the lady of the couple 2 apparently made. Couple 1 exchange awkward glances at each other and try to act polite by saying "this smells like a cat". 

The didactic tone of these commercials is reminiscent of a classic 1950's social instruction film. Poor Suzy she dresses sloppy and the other kids say mean things about her, don't be a Sloppy Suzy! Similarly, these commercials serve as a warning that others might be embarrassed FOR you. Should you be tempted to give out crafty crap as gifts or invent recipes, remember your friends and family think that's weird. Make everyone more comfortable and just buy stuff from Target.

The set up of these ads is meant to remind the audience of what it feels like when you have to be gracious and accept a gift that you don't really like. The implication is that this is always negative experience. But in actuality, it feels equally as great to receive something someone made for you as it does to make something for someone else. These commercials encourage a perspective of childlike narcissism only to play it against the common social anxiety felt about pleasing other people.

On a whole Target's advertising is a cut above. Their stylish and simple Worholian celebrations of commerce are completely transparent and effective, even a pre-Black Friday series featuring the comedic talent of Maria Bamford were fun without being insulting. Target has proved that it is possible to still sell things people without putting out a negative message and I guess, that's why this set of commercials feels cheap and lazy to me.

So yes, Target, it is time for some new traditions... make whatever inventive food and gifts you want to give to your friends and family this holiday season in confidence that they will love you even more for doing so.

Vampire fantasy is inescapable. Today, confronted by an onslaught of particularly annoying advertising, I got to thinking about the real bloodsuckers and why we are so poorly equipped to resist them.

Yes, real vampires exist and they are way more annoying than the sparkly kind and far less sexy than the interviewed kind, but don't worry, they are equally as needy!

Edward: I have to tell you something. The reason why you are one dimensional, is because I stole your personality from you while you were busy updating your iPod apps in chem lab this morning. sorry.

Bella: That's OK, I never really had that much stake in it to begin with. Can we make out now?

So, while Ed and Bella do that, we can talk about the latest Yahoo! brand campaign.

This ad in particular, has me fired up

Now the internet has a personality. Yours.

On the one hand I applaud it's honesty. Openly stating that your brand has nothing to offer is pretty bold. And it's true. YOU are the product that many media companies now sell to each other. If they can't convince millions of us use their service, they got nothing. Currently, these businesses trade us services and tools for personal data and this works pretty well. But as a long term business plan? How long can this value proposition hold up?

As long as they can convince us that we are the center of the YOUniverse. And so, vampires they must become.

I saw Jonathan Zittrain give this Minds For Sale, talk at the Digital Labor conference last month. He goes through examples of the many ethically questionable deals businesses are making with individuals online all the time. I am interested specifically, in the exploitation of individuals personalities/identities but he essentially covers the same issues and frameworks. Well worth a watch plus Zittrain keeps it entertaining.

Also, it's not because they are vampires that you want to suck face with them, its because they are 16, you creepy pedophiles!