August 9, 2008

Serious about Social Media: Are We Losing the of Context of Our Lives?

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 7:03 pm

Linking in Ways We’ve Never Linked Before

You Tube is the equivalent of 400 “always on” TV channels. We are producers, directors, and the audience, but it’s more than that. We’re passing on culture, values, and meaning.

Watch as social anthropologist Dr. Michael Wesch captures and explains the lessons of the participation culture for the Library of Congress.

“. . . think of the fun people are having as they’re doing this dance.”

“It’s a celebration of new forms of community.”

“The web is about linking people in ways we’ve never been linked before.”

This video is an hour long. If you’re serious about understanding what’s happening online, start watching. I’m about to watch it for the third time.


Social media is the dynamic tension of everything inside and outside each of us.

Social media helps us balance our increasing individualization with community. It helps us fill our increasing isolation with relationships and to replace a growing environment of commercialism with authenticity. We build communities through screens and webcams.

We live in an increasing loss of context where everyone is watching and no one is there.
45:20 for the climax.

Did you see yourself and people you know in this video?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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28 Comments to “Serious about Social Media: Are We Losing the of Context of Our Lives?”

  1. August 9th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
    Nancy Sutherland said

    I took the time to watch that today for Warren Whitlock. It’s definitely worth taking the time to see what direction that everything is heading. If you aren’t going forward you will be left behind because things are moving faster than ever and change occurs more rapidly. I love it!!!!

  2. August 9th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Nancy,
    I’m in the middle of my third viewing and I still can’t get over how much this video has to offer. Dr. Wesch has brought a phenomenal amount of insight and observation here.

  3. August 9th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
    David Bullock said

    Liz,

    Thanks for a great resource to frame this rapidly evolving thing called social media.

    To use this new communication channel correctly and not get lost in the “technology of it all”, we must understand the human element.

    The technology and way we use it is an extension of who we are and are becoming.

  4. August 9th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
    JP Micek said

    This is a great find Liz. I love hearing the “story” behind success stories.

    Whether it’s a biography, book or video there’s always so many more things to learn from dissecting and discovering gems in content like this. It sure beats just stopping at the more “obvious” event(s) that garnered the actual buzz/popularity/success for the person. ;-)

    Thanks for sharing this.

  5. August 9th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Yeah, David,
    I like the way he starts with media “mediates” human relationships, as media changes so does the way we relate. Paying attention to the way our context is changing is key to our personal and interpersonal landscape.

  6. August 9th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi JP,
    Understanding how it all comes together in this way, almost makes me with I was an ethnographer. :)

  7. August 9th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
    Evan M Peck said

    Great post and great find. Interesting that you pick this topic for discussion. I just wrote an article for the blog today saying “conversation without context leads to misunderstandings. Or even worse, misrepresentations”. I think that we need to look at social media that points us physically toward each other (as in coffee shops, gatherings, etc.). Unfortunately, there is such a fine line between context and privacy online. That’s why I’m learning that Twitter is such a fantastic tool. It lets us socialize while creating boundaries that help us from throwing out context. I don’t mean to pimp my article at all, but it probably is better explained there.

    All in all, I’m very happy I found your blog today. Looking forward to dialogue in the future!

  8. August 9th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
    Writer Dad said

    What a wonderful site. I found you entirely be accident, but am thankful I did. Thank you.

  9. August 9th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Evan,
    Context reveals where things fit — relationship — without it we fill in assumptions. Wrong assumptions lead to the wrong conclusions and wrong responses. Ouch.

  10. August 9th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Writer Dad,
    You’re not the first one, who got here by some mysterious accident.

    Glad you’re happy to have landed in the neighborhood.

    You’re not a stranger anymore. :)

  11. August 9th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
    Minifortunes said

    I think history will look back on the dawn of the internet age in the same way we look at the invention of the printing press. I really think the internet is the greatest achievement of the human intellect…a collective consciousness greater than the sum of its parts. Thanks for sharing this video!

  12. August 10th, 2008 at 5:04 am
    Stephen Baugh said

    Hi Liz

    Laughed at the timing of your blog entry … today I was watching my kids outside playing with a camcorder.

    My 6 year old came inside and I asked her “What are you doing” … She said “making a video for youtube” …

    Honestly … I didn’t know what to think … or to say … I just smiled and wait to see what they have created.

    The last one she and her 10 year old sister created was this

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GwWfpLOcHQ

    Surprised to just notice they have had over a 1000 views, wish each of my blog pages had that much traffic :-)

  13. August 10th, 2008 at 6:36 am
    Stephen said

    I am sitting here, completely overwhelmed by the possibilities that this video exposes. It deserves to have 100 million views. I laughed, I cried, I can’t believe it’s an academic presentation.
    Well, that’s not exactly true, I was anticipating a different context, a more quantitative/objective analysis, not the qualitative/metaphysical (that’s not the right word, but I think you know what I’m getting at) way of looking at that content.

    I am also very interested and intrigued by the topics or specifics that the students were looking at - “identity”, “awareness”, etc.
    I am going to post this on my new site Liz, thank you so much for sharing. I will have to watch it again, later, when I’ve had some time to digest it.

  14. August 10th, 2008 at 7:08 am
    Business Development In Context : Studying YouTube for Context Awareness said

    [...] Strauss at Successful Blog has posted an amazing video by Michael Wesch. Entitled “An Anthropological Introduction to [...]

  15. August 10th, 2008 at 10:39 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Minifortunes,
    The Internet makes understanding the “hive mind” much easier for me. I surely is the most life changing, relationship changing invention since the automobile hit the interstate and the airplane hit the sky.

  16. August 10th, 2008 at 10:44 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Stephen Baugh!
    That video is fabulous! Wow!

  17. August 10th, 2008 at 10:46 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Stephen,
    The video presents so many things that we’re experiencing and frames them in ways I recognize, but hadn’t put words to yet. This isn’t a video about YouTube. It’s a video about how the Internet is changing our lives. :)

  18. August 10th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
    Mother Earth said

    This is a profound video. I can’t get over the significance it brings to the validity of technology, expression and oneness.

    I adore that it’s so populated by our youth, the future. As a parent it reminds me that there is more to my own two children than I know

    I haven’t watched TV in 12 years and paralled YouTube to be some of the same garbage. I had no idea what YouTube was because I didn’t participate, and yet every viral piece of footage that I was supposed to see, some of which was shared here, found me - despite my resistance.

    In my life I have lost myself way too many times.

    You graciously told me that this last year I created an identity for myself via my blog

    What I was doing more than anything was creatively coping through one of the hardest times of my life

    What emerged was simply me and I didn’t even know

  19. August 10th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
    Francie said

    I should know better than to stop by here when I already have a lot to do ;-)
    But, this was a worthwhile “distraction”. I watched part this morning, then decided I had to come back and see the rest.

    Very interesting! Like any other form of communication, the viewer has the choice of what they watch or follow. I have mostly only watched music videos prior to viewing this.
    Personally, wouldn’t be inclined to watch a lot of the silly or home video stuff. Viewing a lecture, though - bonus!

    I liken the part about making one’s initial vlog to that of a begining writer. What should I write about, who should I show it to etc? Then, with some success the process generally becomes more comfortable and it(as well as the author)matures and progresses.

    Don’t see any reason for YouTube needing to be “authentic” or “true”. Just like writing, movies, TV - I think there’s plenty of room for all categories or genre.

    I loved the Free Hugs part. Also, the guy at the end. I agree, social media doesn’t have to change the world. Sometimes all we need is to make it through another day with a smile on our face. A 3 minute clip from YouTube can do that. Thanks for sharing this Liz!

  20. August 10th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Mother Earth,
    How eloquently you stated something we all face and face down our humanity. It’s amazing how “set” in our ways even the most open of us can be — we need those boundaries and that context to support us, but just as our bodies screen unwanted stimulus, our mind do the same. In both ways we lose because of those filters.

    Sometimes we have to look past our filters to see.

  21. August 10th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Francie,
    All through this I saw our blogs and our conversations. It’s about how media is changing us. The world our grandchildren live in won’t be anything like this one — that seem clear now. :)

  22. August 10th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
    Sally J. (Practical Archivist) said

    I’ve been a big fan of Mike Wesch’s since his mesmerizing first viral video, The Machine Is Us/ing Us.

    Amazing insights in this one…almost makes me want to go back and do my anthropology major all over again. Almost.

    And since it’s free and online, it will be seen by millions more hungry minds than The Good Professor could ever fit in a single classroom.

    Suh-weet.

  23. August 10th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hiya! Sally,
    It’s everything you say it is. Thanks for saying it.

    You’re not a stranger anymore. Hope you come back. :)

  24. August 11th, 2008 at 6:37 am
    Karin H. said

    Hi Liz

    Had to watch in in two sessions. Yesterday I ‘ran-out-of-time’: annual barbecue in our garden with friends who now all ‘experience’ the internet as ‘a friend’ in its own right. Some of them are creating their content weekly; sharing knowledge, stories, life ;-)

    I finished watching it just now and am ‘whelmed’ by the possibilities of that little glass ‘peeking’ out to the world. A wonderful, honest, extra-ordinary gathering of impressions, history, future, usages, dreams, reality, growth, sharing.
    It’s not confined to glass, a keyboard and fibre-glass connections have the same potential. It’s the dream/reality that counts.
    Thanks.

    Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

  25. August 11th, 2008 at 7:46 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Karin,
    It sure seems that Dr. Wesch has put together something that’s lasting because of how it marks a place in history that resonates with all of us. That little glass, this little comment box — both have made us different more aware, more dimensional. :)

  26. August 27th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
    FreshNetworks Blog » Blog Archive » Required reading - An anthropological introduction to YouTube said

    [...] Serious about Social Media: Are We Losing the of Context of Our Lives? [...]

  27. October 26th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
    Yvonne Pierre said

    I love this video. Very informative, inspirational… Wow! Thank you!

    Blessings,

    Yvonne Pierre
    Momtrepreneur/Host/Producer
    The Yvonne Pierre Show
    Zyonair’s Unlimited, LLC
    http://www.hyhradio.com
    http://www.zyonair.com

  28. October 30th, 2008 at 7:47 am
    How Will We Answer the Twitter Question Then? - Liz Strauss at Successful Blog - Thinking, writing, business ideas . . . You’re only a stranger once. said

    [...] Dr. Michael Wesch says Change the media — the tools — and you change the way people relate. The Machine Is Us/ing Us. [...]

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