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In The
Peep Diaries, Toronto-based journalist Hal Niedzviecki
has written what may be the definitive text on the culture
of voyeurism in the early twenty-first century. With in-depth
examinations of vlogs, reality TV, social networking websites,
and the lack of privacy in contemporary life, Niedzviecki
explores the good, the bad, and the ugly of a life lived online.
In his quest to reach a conclusion about what this means about
where our culture is going, the author fairly explores these
related issues. Perhaps a little too fairly—although
he seems a bit paranoid and skittish throughout the book,
by the end, Niedzviecki plops himself in the middle of the
spectrum, unable to definitively revel or revile where this
is taking culture.
Niedzviecki
shows that although the recent proliferation of web 2.0 technologies
have facilitated electronic communication, giving everyone
access to friendly and eager audiences, the history of electronic
voyeurism can be traced back to the early 1970s, when the
groundbreaking PBS show An American Family filmed a
typical California household documentary style, proving that
no matter how mundane we think our neighbors' lives are, they're
interesting enough to watch in well-edited 60 minute chunks.
In the early days of the web, there was JenniCAM, one of the
earliest and most popular self-documentary sites, which allowed
web watchers to view still images that refreshed every three
minutes and showed college student Jennifer Ringley sleeping
or sitting on a couch. These early experiments led to TV shows
like The Real World and Big Brother, vlogs,
and amateur porn for every taste and fetish.
Who are
these people, blogging about every mundane detail, taking
dirty photos of themselves and posting them to the web, and
who are the people who are hungry for this entertainment?
As readers no doubt suspect, it's all of us. According to
Niedzviecki, the people who post, who view their everyday
lives as entertainment, sometimes get addicted to the attention
and begin to do more to achieve the attention they crave.
And watchers may become alienated from real life interaction
and inured to real issues and real problems in people's lives
that are viewed solely as entertainment.
However,
web 2.0 apps are not just limited to exhibitionists. Nieddzviecki
reminds readers that just about everyone has a Facebook page,
and despite concerns about privacy everyone is very happy
to take quizzes that mine profiles for demographic information.
In exchange for the alleged fun of the quiz, people get specifically
targeted ads based on their age, musical taste, profession,
income, and marital status. None of these things had anything
to do with the quizzes, but once users click that button that
accepts the almost-always unread terms of service, their info
has become fodder for advertisers.
These
don't have to be bad things. It's not terrible to see an ad
that tells users that their favorite bands are coming to town,
or that shoe store they like is having a sale. But in exchange
for the perceived convenience of having ads that have specific
people in mind, users do give up privacy.
Niedzviecki
uses plenty of real-world examples to show where things are
headed with this over-sharing, voyeuristic, electronically
connected culture. Day care centers set up webcams so that
parents can monitor the care that their children are getting.
It can be comforting for a father to see that his daughter
is having fun, or taking a nap, but when that father logs
on and sees his daughter crying over nothing, he could misconstrue
that something innocuous is a major problem. Niedzviecki also
approaches all his subjects objectively, no matter his personal
stance, and shows that voyeurs, exhibitionists, and the paranoid
all have valid points.
Every
chapter of this book is densely packed with fascinating information
on how society has changed with the growth of web 2.0 and
electronic surveillance, and also why the culture has allowed
it to change. We no longer have the comfort of the extended
family and the small village, so now we use media to present
us with an artificial village with fake neighbors on whom
we can spy on and about whom we can gossip. Niedzviecki's
writing style and well-organized structure ensures that readers
will not get bored when reading about heavy concepts like
the philosophy and social implications of gossip and privacy.
No matter
one's feelings about reality television, web 2.0 and electronic
surveillance, The Peep Diaries is intensely illuminating
information in every chapter and should provoke readers into
thinking about how they use these relatively new tools to
insure they protect themselves.
(July
2009)
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