Matthew Levinson

Kids aren't on the street

Published on 15/02/07
by matt

Here’s a fascinating article that in a sense reinforces things that you already knew, but hadn’t put into words. Or at least I instinctively knew but hadn’t articulated. It’s at NYmag.com, but I got it via Seb Chan’s Powerhouse Museum blog, Fresh + New.

People tackle risk in an emotional way that’s weighted towards immediate benefits over long term risks. It’s in people accepting the benefits of omega-3 oils in bread and milk even as they question the use of GM ingredients elsewhere, or driving home after a few drinks rather than wait for a cab or public transport. That’s the underlying concept here, I guess. Though we’re also talking a seismic shift in the way people interact online, a sudden shift forward in the internet’s evolution.

Web 2.0 – Flickr, Last.fm, myspace, del.icio.us – is an epic scale shakedown on privacy considerations. Even as campaigners take on government organisations, banks and big business to keep data collection to a minimum, the young public has taken to recording it all online, voluntarily.

In personal discussions with friends I’ve struggled to articulate just why it’s not an issue, or at least not an issue worth stopping me from doing things online. I guess it’s because although I’m not an under-25, as someone who’s had a vaguely public life through DJing, radio and writing, doing things online is pretty comfortable. I didn’t grow up with gaming – no online worlds like Second Life or WOW – but message boards and forums can be community every bit as real as anywhere else.

The New York mag article points out this is the first ‘real’ generation gap since the ’50s.

“Younger people, one could point out, are the only ones for whom it seems to have sunk in that the idea of a truly private life is already an illusion. Every street in New York has a surveillance camera. Each time you swipe your debit card at Duane Reade or use your MetroCard, that transaction is tracked. Your employer owns your e-mails. The NSA owns your phone calls. Your life is being lived in public whether you choose to acknowledge it or not.”

Like a great song, a great observation takes something so patently obvious that noone’s thought of observing it before, and uses it to enunciate a poignant reality.

“When I was in high school, you’d have to be a megalomaniac or the most popular kid around to think of yourself as having a fan base. But people 25 and under are just being realistic when they think of themselves that way, says media researcher Danah Boyd, who calls the phenomenon “invisible audiences.” Since their early adolescence, they’ve learned to modulate their voice to address a set of listeners that may shrink or expand at any time: talking to one friend via instant message (who could cut-and-paste the transcript), addressing an e-mail distribution list (archived and accessible years later), arguing with someone on a posting board (anonymous, semi-anonymous, then linked to by a snarky blog). It’s a form of communication that requires a person to be constantly aware that anything you say can and will be used against you, but somehow not to mind.”

It’s funny commenting on this here – should I cross-post to Last.fm and myspace?

I read on a friend’s myspace that he likes reading blogs by people he hates (!) and having posted at inthemix.com.au for ages, it’s second nature to remember that your throwaway remark, acerbically witty as it might be, the day after a second-rate club night, will probably be read (and remarked upon) by the promoter, the DJs, and a sub-set of people who were there.

That’s not to say it’s all good.

It’s important that people question what’s happening, and what’s going to happen with all this information. The people who control these sites, and thus the data, are huge multinationals as Jace/Rupture and Wayne comment here.

“I think im saying web2.0 culture is great, but the monetization/meta-data analysis of that culture could easily be applied to uses out of step with web2.0’s XML-y emphasis on collabo, trading, datamashup, sharing, etc.”

Wayne calls for “collabo-curatorial hacktivism…fostering DIY/p2p remix/mash culture thru the civilly disobedient sharing and tweaking and linking of things. &thus making eloquent arguments, in discourse and design, against the very status quo that the corporate mining of our metamaps would seem to support.”

If I like the sound of that, does it pin me to my generation?

That's it. What Next?

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