Living and Working in a Virtual World in-class presentation

The book our group will be presenting in Professor Fry's class is titled "Against the machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob" by Lee Siegel. As you can probably tell from the title alone Mr. Siegel is a critic who views the Internet, and its impact on our culture, as something that needs further examination. He views modern day culture as being infected and the Internet simply as the carrier for spreading the "virus" of illogical human patterns and thoughts. As you will likely gather from the following, he is a critic in the truest sense of the word.

I am responsible for presenting Part 2 of 3 parts. Kei Corbett and Samantha Huoth will be presenting parts 1 and 3 respectively. Part 2 includes chapters 4, 5, and 6. These chapters are respectively titled "The Context of Participatory Culture", "Down with Popular Culture", and "Participatory Culture". In the chapter titled "Context of Participatory Culture" his main focus is bashing the book "The Tipping Point" (#42 all time bestseller on Amazon) for encouraging, and strengthening, the behavior of those seeking "high school" style popularity online. Siegel says "The Tipping Point is a how-to book for Homo interneticus." He also goes on to say "In The Tipping Point, human existence is wholly driven by commercial concerns. Life is divided into manipulating winners and manipulating losers: there are people who know 'Connectors', possess a 'sticky' concept, and have the capacity to use their environment and then there is everyone else." With that being said, I guess I would like to hear how Mr. Siegel would respond to such quotes like "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players" from Shakespeare, and this quote, "It is better to be making the news than taking it; to be an actor rather than a critic." from Winston Churchill. I would argue that the search for popularity is not a new concept and that authors like Malcolm Gladwell, author of the "The Tipping Point", are only playing their role in enabling those whose role is to be "Connectors" the ability to do what they do more effectively.

Chapter 5 titled "Down with Popular Culture" continues down this path of ripping on popular culture. His target in Chapter 5, the popular reality-television show "American Idol." Siegel says that "in the race for popularity-that is, fame without accomplishment- the self is left behind. They (American Idol contestants) just want to be liked. They just want to be big." Personally, I think this is selling these kids, who have been working for years at honing their skills as singers and entertainers, way too short. We can't all be starving artists like it seems Siegel would hope, some of us need to make a living. I just wonder where Siegel got his first break? Did he do it by pointing out to his boss and consumers (his audience) how they just want to be liked and how unoriginal they are? I doubt it! These contestants are just giving the people what they want. Isn't that the way the world works for most of us outside the critical literary realm? I appreciate that Siegel is just doing his job, but at the same time I wish he would just appreciate the fact that these contestants on American Idol are also just doing their jobs as well.

Now is a good time to point out, once you get past all the bashing, that Siegel does actually make one interesting argument along the way that our culture has changed from being "passively" to "actively" entertained. Examples of this are voting for contestants, going to TV show websites and participating in online surveys and games, virtual communities like Second Life, and video games like the Wii. We now demand to be part of the action, instead of just spectators.

Chapter 6 titled "Participatory Culture" continues where Chapter 5, "Down with Popular Culture", leaves off. "Down with Popular Culture" spoke to how "passive" entertainment is being phased out in favor of more "active" entertainment options. This is illustrated when Siegel says "these days, thanks to movieoke and video games, a spectator now has various opportunities to play his favorite actor performing his favorite role. The director James Cameron is even reportedly working on a new 3-D film called Avatar - also a term for an anonymous Internet user's alias - which will offer to spectators the experience of actually being in the film". To me that sounds kind of interesting and weird at the same time, like a modern day "Choose your own adventure" book perhaps.

From my perspective, I see Siegel as being the type that if he can't be original he'll just rip on everyone else for their unoriginality until he brings them down to his level. Siegel is like the "high school" bully, insecure in his popularity building abilities, that goes around making everyone who is popular feel like they are being fake. The way I see it, we are all individuals and products of our own personal experiences and environments. I didn't find much originality in Seigel's book, which is ironic considering, I am sure if you were to ask him he would point out that his point-of -view is unique and enlightened. To this I would respond with another quote, this from Alison Boulter, "Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else”.