Entertainment :: Culture
Smile! You’re On The Web by Scott Stiffler
EDGE ContributorMonday Oct 20, 2008
It’s 1968, and Andy Warhol has just declared "In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." Back then, even the forward-thinking Warhol could not fathom how Reality TV and the Internet would fulfill his prediction with such nightmarish efficiency.
It’s 2008, and all you have to do to claim your fifteen minutes and then some is post outrageous, attention-getting content on YouTube or MySpace. There, countless Internet celebrities have been born; from the fey, teary-eyed teen who begged us to "Leave Britney Alone" to the brave but intellectually challenged teenage boy who launched a firecracker out of an orifice best left covered and unlit.
But why are Generation Y and their successors so eager to post their innermost, intimate thoughts online - where the whole world can access them until, barring any unforeseen disaster, the end of time? Why haven’t those who grew up in the 50s, 60s and 70s followed suit? Edge spoke with some academics and cultural pundits to find out if flooding the net with deeply personal images and video is something just for the kids. . .or something for everybody.
Generational Stereotypes: Generally True?
Old folks shun the web because they’re reluctant to embrace modern technology and gun-shy when it comes to matters of personal disclosure. So goes the popular theory as to why those over 30 aren’t on the web in numbers comparable to those under that age. "That’s a generalization." says Tom Weber, director of community services at SAGE (Service and Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Elders. "It’s true that older people in general aren’t as savvy on the computer as younger people. A lot of it has to do with fear of technology. It wasn’t there when they were growing up, so it’s more foreign to them. But there are many older people who, once they start to learn, become very proficient on the computer."
To help facilitate that proficiency, SAGE began offering computer literacy classes earlier this year thorough their Cyber Center program. Seniors learn the basics of how to get online and navigate the web, as well as how to download pictures and videos. The resulting skills have "helped folks open the door to computer and Internet technology and then utilize it in their own lives." Weber says that in addition to surfing the web for information about medical conditions, wellness and shopping, queer seniors are using it to "look at things in the LGBT world; there’s a community component there. As they become more frail and disabled, it’s an outlet for them to forge personal connections to people even if they can’t have a face to face meeting."
But generally true generalizations aren’t just for seniors; there’s plenty of accurate one-size-fits-all analysis that applies to the younger generation - such as their use of the Internet to form, declare and affirm identity. Shortly before social networking sites became the electronic confessional of choice, Reality TV paved the way for the celebritization of everyday people - and the notion that infamy is, if not entirely flattering, still a desirable form of fame.
As noted in a previous Edge feature (http://www.edgenewyork.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=glbt&sc2=features&sc3=&id=73966), John Edward Campbell (author of "Getting It on Online: Cyberspace, Gay Male Sexuality and Embodied Identity") believes "The younger generation seem predisposed to broadcast personal information on the net" in large part because "They have been raised in a culture of Reality TV that carries the message that by opening your life up to the world, you can become a celebrity. Anyone can become a celebrity on the Internet, and it is reinforced by this culture of Reality TV where people are opening themselves up."
More accessible and farther-reaching than a mere TV show, social networking sites fast became the younger generation’s equivalent of the diary. Unlike their parents and grandparents (who would be mortified if a log containing their innermost secrets were discovered), the under twenty-five set adopted social networking as a way to achieve liberation, admiration and peer credibility through full disclosure.
Dr. Larry Rosen, Professor of Psychology at California State University, Domingez Hills and author of "Me, MySpace and I: Parenting the Net Generation," notes how teens and young adults are revealing themselves "in a very specific way, by going onto MySpace or Facebook. They go to where it says sexual orientation and they change it from hetero to homo or bi. It’s an issue of putting their foot in the water; to see what kind of responses they get. Since these kids collect friends, they get a lot of comments."
Posting intimate details about your life, and taking pride in it, is a practice that belongs largely to younger people. Those who grew up before, during and shortly after the Cold War era don’t regard sharing personal information in the same way. "It’s a generational phenomenon; the patterns of personal disclosure that people are comfortable with." says Tom Kamber, Executive Director of OATS (Older Adults Technology Services). "A lot of sensors are baffled as to why a twenty year-old wants to share what they had for dinner last night through their Facebook page. There’s that instinct for disclosure that seems strange to older people."
The reluctance of older people to fully embrace posting revelatory photos and videos on the web is certainly due in part to the fact that they’ve lived longer and had more experiences in which information, over time, can come back to haunt them. Rosen points out that the under twenty-five set hasn’t yet been burned in such matters and, as a result, doesn’t fully consider the long-term consequences of posting unflattering content on the web: "When you ask the kids about this, they dismiss it lightly by saying ’It’s just MySpace or Facebook’ as if it has no further ramifications beyond that medium. The other thing I hear a lot is they really believe on some level that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. It’s the idea that you can do what you want and it will have no further ramifications. They believe that what’s on MySpace stays there." As more and more employers and college admissions departments begin to cruise the web to help evaluate the character of an applicant, more and more young people will certainly come to regret that beer bong photo of them taken at last weekend’s party and posted on a site that they have no editorial control over.
On the other hand, Rosen says that full disclosure on the net can be an act of empowerment; especially for isolated LGBT teens: "Psychologists have talked for decades about the fact that the teenage and early adult years are a search for yourself; a search for identity. The age that kids come out is much earlier and it’s primarily because they are coming out online. Today, the coming out age is just over 13, compared to the 90s when teens came out between 14 and 16; and certainly younger than decades before, when teens did not dare reveal their homosexuality until they were adults."
Photo: As seen on Myspace.
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