LESS ALONE An Exploration Into Internet Society

LESS ALONE:

AN EXPLORATION INTO INTERNET SOCIETY
or
A STUDY IN VOYEURISM INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE NEW SOCIETY
or
INSIGHT INTO PERSONAL SEPARATION UNITY AND THE STRANGE SPACE IN BETWEEN

Introduction:

“Internet society” is moving fast, very fast toward an unknown that is attracting legions of Americans, especially young people to a more intimate, pseudo reality than that “reality” that makes reality TV as archaic and structured as a soap opera. Welcome to the world of the video blog. A more voyeuristic view into the lives of celebrities and wanabe celebs who vie for your face time and your dollar as pre recorded Television goes the way of the Flintstones. Real-time internet reality video-blogs are going mainstream… with all their crude video foibles and boring circumstance they are becoming the new television especially for young viewers who want more of a connection with those around them.

Where did all this stuff come from? And all this before my spell checker has learned the word “blogging” this new generation of viewers is leaving the heavily formatted world of cable and network television for a more real time, interactive and less rehearsed form of entertainment.

Since real time internet video/television hooked up with interactive text blogging everything has changed. Instant blog-style feedback engages the mind of viewers-readers and the data could not be more welcomed or timely! Instantaneous feedback puts the fingers of the media monitors directly on the pulse of a rapidly changing society in real time. This provides valuable data that is worth big bucks while analysts bet on trends created or revealed directly from the commentary from viewers – the holy grail of market research.

Entertainment meets socializing?
So who are the girls of Nonsociety.com? They are three New York City friends, (can you say Sex and the City?) columnist Julia Alison designer Mary Ramen and hedge fund annalist Megan Asha. They can be viewed, blogged, and enjoyed much like the burgeoning stars of the fifties when television produced Lucy and Leave it to Beaver, these girls are walking a riding on the fast moving edge of media. They are perfecting a forward-thinking form of entertainment sure to capture the mind and dollars of a seriously bored television weary consumer market advertisers only once dreamed of. What do you have to do with this new wave of web-stars? Well nothing really. But they do everything in their power to make you think you are right there with them, enjoying that grilled Mahi Mahi or when you witness a real-time-blooper! The interactive qualities of these video blogs satisfy (and get valuable feed from) thousands of viewers on what they claim are “interesting daily activities” which might be an ice cream spill on a dress, their new shoes, what they are eating, what restaurants they are going to, what they are ordering, what tampon they buy ad nauseum! It makes a young girl in Hong Kong feel as though they are one of the girls in New York City. How cool is that? Has Sex and the City joined with Barbie’s dream house? Not quite. But the time has come for real girls of New York City to give this a shot and to make us feel less alone. If the entire public has not yet decided that television is too boring to hold their attention is it this kind of voyeuristic schlock that will hold their interest rather than wait for the weekly drama of Desperate Housewives? Is the DVR a vain attempt to hold market share from the dynamic and immediate gratification provided by new internet video? Tune out, tune in and don’t touch that dial / keyboard for we are only a market share away from television going the way of AM radio.

The interactive video blog-o-sphere is the new infant on the block. Interaction is key and the illusion of real participation and contact with internet stars is the hook. But is it contact? Is someone really there? Of course not! Is it a magazine, a TV show and a blog that you can talk to! It is an interactive mechanism that is interesting and fun and seductive in a creepy voyeuristic kind way, but unlike television, it draws you real-time into terribly a current “dialogue” that viewers find not only seductive but addictive. The higher reality being that it is global. New Yorkers have figured out that their grunge chic lives sell. And what the Girls of Nonsociety.com have figured out is that they while perhaps not the first in the blog-o-sphere to combine media in this manner may just be the best. They know how to give their public just enough gratification to engage them into their lives just enough to hook them while genuine interaction with The Girls of Non Society, if they are as smart as I suspect are collecting data that will eventually be processed into as many of your dollars as they can shove in their Coach handbags. While new interesting and fun it is my opinion that this playful mode of media will become another conduit to our bank accounts while creating a new kind of altar on which plain and simple dreamers can lay their dreams. Is this playful media or is it mechanical manipulation designed to pump fame, ego’s and bank accounts of celebrity wanabes while the viewer may “feel” less alone he or she is alone as ever… if not more so.

But is “less alone” good for you? While Madison Avenue is tickled pink with this new media grunge, dollars outweigh your psyche every time. Will a young girl blog endlessly with the girls of Nonsociety.com thinking she is really part of the lives of the girls while they are just sucking her soul and picking her pocket and mind for their piece of consumer market share? Of course! Once they figure out, if they have not already that feedback is date made “fun” will the girls on Nonsociety.com go down in history as the Lucille Ball of the internet? I can hear the orgasm from Madison Avenue now!