“Being a Hero”: The Lost American Dream?

The Scent of “America”

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Dmojo’s periodic take on the cultural themes, mood and psyche of “America” as seen through Hollywood movies and sci-fi/horror tv serials.

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Superheroes are worshipped around the world in the temples of cinema and at the alters of our flat screen tvs. Our digitised comic book gods are created in our own image, viciously infected with our neurotic and paranoid prayers and their foibles are super-sized by superhero powers.

The world adores the comic book “superhero” and its an enduring symbol of true red-blooded America that goes hand in hand with burgers, fries and baseball. If we were to pose the light-hearted question “if America was a superhero, what kind of superhero would it be?” We’d have our answer… a superhero like all of “us”, with the same problems, but worse… perhaps a super-clumsy, socially inept, drunken bum (i.e. “Hancock”) or one desperately in need of a shrink; to work out how life, the world and their parents screwed them up (i.e. “Heroes”, “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” and “Supernatural”). Despite the Oprah-style psycho-doublespeak swirling around in their heads, they nevertheless resolutely muddle through to save the world “by the skin of their teeth”. Superhero life is getting really tough as everybody knows something’s gone very wrong but exactly what is illusive and unfathomable; superhero victories over evil are complex half won battles and the war is bent on continuing in the next episode or sequel; buying us

TouchMe.MyGizmo

Pocket gizmos seem to be getting to a stage where they might actually be worth my while, but are they? Is their beauty only hardware deep, i.e. do they have the software smarts to really be my pocket slave?

Salivating at the thought of a pocket gizmo that might actually do what I want it to… I “reach out and touch” the new generation of multi-tasking, always connected wifi-web-phone-cam toys. I marvel at these truly gorgeous objects of digital desire… knowing all it takes is a smarter, better, faster model from the geek toy-makers at Santa’s secret phone factory and my fickle heart will flutter anew.

For now though, I can enjoy my love affair with these new and very sexy rivals to the iPhone, secretly hoping the iPhone will be assassinated… (although it has a user interface to die for… it’s sooo uncool). These new gizmos (namely the Nokia N97 and the HTC Touch HD phones) come with 3.5/3.8 inch touch screen, web-cam on the front, 5mp cam on the back, mini/micro-USB port, 3.5mm headphone jack, micro-SD (max 16gb), but other than that they don’t vary hugely in terms of hardware (the HTC has a slightly bigger screen but the N97 is wide-screen format, has 32gb on-board memory, a slide-out qwerty keyboard, cam flash and the 3.5mm jack doubles for TV out) and they both have GPS sat-nav capability.

My heart’s desire was that my magical pocket gizmo would function as a phone, digital concept/sketch book, mini-tv, and all round webby communicator; handy when waiting around for someone in a cafe or public place, or when I’m on the move

The Digital Erosion of Being You

As we enter the world of digital visibility we are opening ourselves up to always-on connectivity to those we love and care about by choice and free will. However, along the way, we give the same connectivity, information and privilege to a whole host of people we don’t know. Those that are the conduit to connectivity are pimping us to the highest bidders and not only do we get cheated of our cut in the deal; we even don’t know we’re being trafficked. Thus, we are up for sale to anyone who pays for access, we are simultaneously the ones being sold and sold to – we are the army of double-whammy “online losers” dressed up and encouraged to compete with each other to be the “latest, most popular, friend-rich, socially cool, connected” and stark-naked mini-emperors of “MyFace Youoogle” fiefdoms. We are so busily engaged in this futile competition that no one notices as we all turn into chumps, like the eBay bidders that pay extortionate prices because they are so fixated on being “winners”. Anyone and everyone can be crowned; any age, any gender, any and every preference and mishap is accommodated in this emperor club as long as you are proud of prostituting your digital identity.

In pursuit of their holy grail big business and the brand/advertising industry race to define and combine our “Digital Personalities” and “Digital Identities” into advertising (or “sucker”) profiles that are so accurate that advertising becomes an almost 100% indication and assurance of sales. Our seemingly fragmented engagement with various “services/utilities” is being sucked up and

Digital Losers Anonymous?

Recently this question was rattling around in my head, “Do social networks (the likes of “MyFace” & “Youoogle”) and other so-called online communities legitmise, promote and celebrate losers, socially rewarding them with a new found desirability and popularity?”

This issue had arisen numerous times fuelled by my own experiences with online communities and also chats with friends where we kept stumbling on the curious and repeated “exaultation of losers “.

Quite some time ago now, Michael Wesch’s YouTube video “An anthropological introduction to YouTube” landed up infront of my eyeballs; it is a perfect example of the celebration of the lowest common denominator. Although very palatable and entertaining, what is hidden in plain sight and woven into the “happy, happy, freedom and flowers, huggy-world” is YouTube propaganda. Mr Wesch’s observations and findings maybe amusing and of passing interest but are hardly earth shattering revelations about humankind and thus, my reaction was “So what? That’s hardly news”.

However, left to ruminate I started to find the underlying sentiment somewhat unsettling. Why on earth are we supposed to celebrate and glorify “monkey see, monkey do” behaviour and be proud of ourselves for that? Or suddenly think we are so “special” because we may sometimes do and feel the same things as other humans beings on the planet? Mr Wesch’s YouTube advertising campaign screams “WOW, we’re/you’re so AMAZING!!!” but only if you can shove yourself in front of a webcam to be part of the YouTube “community”…