In a complete change around, here are some thoughts on the burgeoning , vapid world of the vlogger.
Call it sour grapes, if you must - after all, I am too old for such japes, and have a resigned, world-weary face best suited to radio or other non-visual media.
Take a deep breath -
In this new 21st Century technology - driven world, it seems that everyone can grasp their fifteen minutes of alloted fame -
but I see a flaw.
Something is missing.
Where is the content ?
Many vlogs, like plain old blogs , are about daily life, and the authors personal experience of the wider world.
Some vlogs are literally about opening packages, and are hugely successful.
In other vlogs, the author wanders around, accidentally - on - purpose promoting a range of cosmetics / clothing / foodstuffs / whatever.
Remove the framing device of ' wandering ' , and there's really nothing there.
It's bland.
We have these ' perfectly decent ' types, moving through their vlogging world.
Scratch the surface, though, and what do you find ?
Nothing.
That's it.
No big life lessons.
No high dramas - after all, edgy tension doesn't equate to selling product.
Or more probably, being hungover and unshaven doesn't look good for a brand ambassador.
Unless you're Keef Richards promoting Jack Daniels, maybe...
I'm feeling increasingly aware of the aimlessness here.
I don't really mind, it's a cultural thing, and I'm obviously not the demographic, so why care ?
I care because I am sad that the new ' level playing field ' of the internet / You Tube world is already awash with this stuff, and not genuine creativity.
Perhaps it's just age - I am bitter and twisted, after all.
I used to write mean (snarky ?) media reviews for an indie magazine long ago, but nowadays, I would find it hard to maintain that level of vitriol for long periods of time.
It's odd, but maybe I chilled out.
These days, I avoid things that annoy me.
Except when they get in my face.
Hence this rant about vloggers / marketing devices - and make no mistake, whilst being seemingly innocuous, most vlogs are aggressively about marketing.
Okay - deep breath.
Perhaps my finger lingered too long on the button marked ' buy happiness '.
ASMR is another burgeoning area of videos with the smallest of sounds designed to comfort and replace the unwanted noisy chaos of the everyday world - given my own myoclonus that took hold a few years ago, I can see the need for such, and so we have niche stars of the ASMR world who post videos of themselves quietly brushing things, or whispering about things, which are viewed by millions.
It's all strange - and, oddly, comforting.
I have no real comparison here - in my dim and distant teenage years, VHS was a new thing, and most people didn't even have a camera.
They were bulky and expensive for a long time.
Disposable culture came in the form of Polaroids - which were a sort of analog Snapchat, I suppose - depending on who you asked...
Some people proudly owned Super - 8 cameras, which took cassettes of film .
When developed, they'd yield three minutes of action.
This meant that you'd have to think about every shot.
Make it count...
There was no social media
There were no computers in the home.
If you asked someone for their wi-fi password they'd look at you strangely, then probably have you sectioned.
It wasn't even very long ago.
Twenty years.
Okay, twenty - five .
We've advanced at an incredible rate, really - oh, no - wait -
Technology has advanced at an incredible rate.
We are trying to adapt to new rules, netiquette and such.
The finer points of social media; lol does not mean ' lots of love', that sort of thing.
My daughter explained to me the use of emojis in place of nuance - no italics or bold type in social media, so intention and meaning are often depicted visually.
It's a minefield - the winking face ?
Thank goodness for millenials to guide us through...
The strange thing is, there's no rebellion.
Well, not in the old way.
The music used to carry the message.
Rock Around The Clock
Summertime Blues
My Generation
Pretty Vacant
Bored Teenagers
Perhaps no-one is vacant or bored anymore.
Infact, are there such a thing as teenagers anymore ?
Or is Young Adult the preferred title ?
Which leads me to another rant - who devised the YA category of books ?
Surely a school somewhere?
In my experience, books are just books.
Okay, there are books which are specifically aimed at children, but they're fairly obvious due to big illustrations and odd fonts.
So how do we reclassify older books from the era pre-YA ?
Is The Lord Of The Rings YA ?
I don't even suppose Harry Potter is YA, technically.
So why marginalise a section of readers?
When do they officially become Adults ?
And who decides this arbitary nonsense ?
My initial research shows that YA appears to be an American scholastic thing , although the age group is fairly loosely defined.
I still have personal issues in that it implies that it's undesirable to expose ' Young Adults' to certain 'Older Adult' themes - presumably issues of mortality or 'perversions' or other life - stuff.
If so, this ties in with the whole avoiding ' triggers ' thing which is really censorship of the worst kind, because it encourages self-censorship.
The ultimate result would surely be a society of molly-coddled, ill - prepared people standing at the door marked ' Real World '.
Not that the real world is entered through a door.
Call it sour grapes, if you must - after all, I am too old for such japes, and have a resigned, world-weary face best suited to radio or other non-visual media.
Take a deep breath -
In this new 21st Century technology - driven world, it seems that everyone can grasp their fifteen minutes of alloted fame -
but I see a flaw.
Something is missing.
Many vlogs, like plain old blogs , are about daily life, and the authors personal experience of the wider world.
Some vlogs are literally about opening packages, and are hugely successful.
In other vlogs, the author wanders around, accidentally - on - purpose promoting a range of cosmetics / clothing / foodstuffs / whatever.
Remove the framing device of ' wandering ' , and there's really nothing there.
It's bland.
We have these ' perfectly decent ' types, moving through their vlogging world.
Scratch the surface, though, and what do you find ?
Nothing.
That's it.
No big life lessons.
No high dramas - after all, edgy tension doesn't equate to selling product.
Or more probably, being hungover and unshaven doesn't look good for a brand ambassador.
Unless you're Keef Richards promoting Jack Daniels, maybe...
I'm feeling increasingly aware of the aimlessness here.
I don't really mind, it's a cultural thing, and I'm obviously not the demographic, so why care ?
I care because I am sad that the new ' level playing field ' of the internet / You Tube world is already awash with this stuff, and not genuine creativity.
Perhaps it's just age - I am bitter and twisted, after all.
I used to write mean (snarky ?) media reviews for an indie magazine long ago, but nowadays, I would find it hard to maintain that level of vitriol for long periods of time.
It's odd, but maybe I chilled out.
These days, I avoid things that annoy me.
Except when they get in my face.
Hence this rant about vloggers / marketing devices - and make no mistake, whilst being seemingly innocuous, most vlogs are aggressively about marketing.
Okay - deep breath.
Perhaps my finger lingered too long on the button marked ' buy happiness '.
ASMR is another burgeoning area of videos with the smallest of sounds designed to comfort and replace the unwanted noisy chaos of the everyday world - given my own myoclonus that took hold a few years ago, I can see the need for such, and so we have niche stars of the ASMR world who post videos of themselves quietly brushing things, or whispering about things, which are viewed by millions.
It's all strange - and, oddly, comforting.
I have no real comparison here - in my dim and distant teenage years, VHS was a new thing, and most people didn't even have a camera.
They were bulky and expensive for a long time.
Disposable culture came in the form of Polaroids - which were a sort of analog Snapchat, I suppose - depending on who you asked...
Some people proudly owned Super - 8 cameras, which took cassettes of film .
When developed, they'd yield three minutes of action.
This meant that you'd have to think about every shot.
Make it count...
 |
| Super 8 |
There was no social media
There were no computers in the home.
If you asked someone for their wi-fi password they'd look at you strangely, then probably have you sectioned.
It wasn't even very long ago.
Twenty years.
Okay, twenty - five .
We've advanced at an incredible rate, really - oh, no - wait -
Technology has advanced at an incredible rate.
We are trying to adapt to new rules, netiquette and such.
The finer points of social media; lol does not mean ' lots of love', that sort of thing.
My daughter explained to me the use of emojis in place of nuance - no italics or bold type in social media, so intention and meaning are often depicted visually.
It's a minefield - the winking face ?
Thank goodness for millenials to guide us through...
The strange thing is, there's no rebellion.
Well, not in the old way.
 |
| " -Whatcha got ?" - The Wild One 1953 |
Rock Around The Clock
Summertime Blues
My Generation
Pretty Vacant
Bored Teenagers
Perhaps no-one is vacant or bored anymore.
Infact, are there such a thing as teenagers anymore ?
Or is Young Adult the preferred title ?
Which leads me to another rant - who devised the YA category of books ?
Surely a school somewhere?
In my experience, books are just books.
Okay, there are books which are specifically aimed at children, but they're fairly obvious due to big illustrations and odd fonts.
So how do we reclassify older books from the era pre-YA ?
Is The Lord Of The Rings YA ?
I don't even suppose Harry Potter is YA, technically.
So why marginalise a section of readers?
When do they officially become Adults ?
And who decides this arbitary nonsense ?
My initial research shows that YA appears to be an American scholastic thing , although the age group is fairly loosely defined.
I still have personal issues in that it implies that it's undesirable to expose ' Young Adults' to certain 'Older Adult' themes - presumably issues of mortality or 'perversions' or other life - stuff.
If so, this ties in with the whole avoiding ' triggers ' thing which is really censorship of the worst kind, because it encourages self-censorship.
The ultimate result would surely be a society of molly-coddled, ill - prepared people standing at the door marked ' Real World '.
Not that the real world is entered through a door.
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