If there’s one thing that’s remained constant over the fifteen years or so that I’ve been wasting time on the Internet, it’s the over hyped notion that the medium would change the way we live for the better. And in a lot of ways, it has. But the big online advancements and advantages are always just over the horizon, while the crap on the web gets deeper every day we slog through it. At no time in my life was this more apparent than this summer, while I was interning at Ziff Davis Media, publishers of, among other things, PC Magazine.
Don’t get me wrong. I had a blast there; the people were great. In fact, I’m still freelancing for them. But when you become a tech journalist, particularly in the consumer field, you get sucked in to press events that on some level are meant to be entertaining, but often tend to be more frightening than funny. And the worst part is, corporations now seem to think everyone should be in on this consumerism-masquerading-as-entertainment bandwagon, and have taken to hocking their wares via web-based reality shows that are really nothing more than one giant commercial.
Panasonic’s “Living in HD” campaign kicked off this summer. You can read about how frighteningly ridiculous the press event was here, or click that obnoxious picture. But essentially, the idea is that Panasonic will be giving away $20,000 in Panasonic HD equipment, including TV’s, cameras, computers and the like, to as many as 100 families. They’re going to film these families, and have them film themselves “living in HD,” and eventually have none other than Brett Ratner, of X-Men 3/Rush Hour fame shame, to edit it all into a “film” that will no doubt make it look like Panasonic’s expensive HD equipment will solve all the world’s problems. The company has even gone so far as to hire on a couple of college professors to study how its products affect the families and surrounding communities. Are you nauseous yet? If not, go check out the footage of families already up at livinginhd.com. Almost every single person seems to be white, and they’re all middle class. But I guess that makes sense, because according to Panasonic’s VP, this utopia-ushering tech that will solve all your problems can be had for “as little as $3,000.” The revolution will, it seems, be monetized.
Not to be outdone in bad taste, clothing retailer J.C. Penney produced a series of web-based reality programs for their back-to-school campaign dubbed “Flip TV.” Hiring the most annoying pair of blond twin hosts/designers this side of Nelson wasn’t bad enough, apparently. The premise: Kids from different generic cliques, like “Ballers” and “skaters,” are forced to spend a week hanging out with and dressing like their polar opposites. Aside from being a thinly veiled showcase for J.C. Penney’s fall teen line, the show also assumes all teens fall into one of four categories, and that they all hate each other. Forced integration aside, the episodes perpetuate stereotypes. All the kids in the show fall cleanly into a specific, predetermined niche, and the fact that the different groups dislike each other simply because they are different is hyped up and seems to be wholly acceptable behavior. J.C. Penney: Bringing the causes of Civil Rights abuses and the wars in the Middle East to a whole new generation, just to sell some jeans.
Thankfully, there are still interesting non-corporate things happening on the Web. A good example is the new search engine Antstorm. Now before you get your nipples twisted over how the last thing we need is another search engine, shut up and keep reading for a few seconds. The idea behind Antstorm is to make it easy for people to save their “tracks,” while researching complicated subjects. So instead of searching sites, at Antstorm you’ll be searching other people’s (hopefully fruitful) searches on complicated subjects. Antstorm puts Google ads on your track pages, and lets you donate the generated revenue to the charity of your choice. That’s only a few pennies here and there, but if the site takes off, it’ll generate millions of dollars to the charities its users designate. I’ve certainly heard worse ideas. Will it take off? The odds are certainly against it, considering the amount of Internet ventures that launch and flop every day. But there’s a small chance, a hope that something of substance can survive and thrive on an Internet increasingly commercialized into inanity. As always, the promise of the ‘net is that it allows people with little or no money the opportunity to be heard as loudly as corporate giants. So long as net neutrality legislation isn’t completely shot down, that hope will remain.
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Over the coming weeks, I’ll continue to bring you the best and worst of the web, and the larger world of technology that’s forcing its way into every crevice of our lives, like it or not. I may be a tech junkie, but I’m also a natural cynic, so expect a (hopefully) intelligent examination of the political and social implications of the ones and zeros invading our politics, our culture, and our economy. Next on the Beyond Wires agenda will likely be a look at how the US Government may now classify you as a “hacker,” for simply using a peer-to-peer file sharing program like Limewire or Kazaa.
