Radiohead in a Box

A mash-up of sorts using a scene from the movie Seven and Radiohead's song "15 Step"

Radiohead in a Box <---clicky

Social Network FAIL?

Failblog is a website dedicated to the art of failure. It allows users to upload pictures, gifs (moving pictures) and movies of people, animals, signs, documents and virtually anything else that exudes failure in sometimes disturbing and often comical ways. If for example, you had a video sitting around of your cat Mr. Winkles attempting to jump through a window, only to find that it is closed as his kitten head smacks the glass, this would be the site to share that moment in hilarity. Does this website possess any of the traits which make it a community, promote culture, or showcase a convergence of media? I believe it does, in fact.

Burgess and Green called Youtube a “co-creative environment” where not some but all participants can serve as “audiences, producers, editors, distributors, and critics.” Failblog is no different. As a part of the Cheezburger community, one must create a username and password to join. This, in itself, makes Failblog a community be default, but what promotes the collective feel even more is the ability to post comments on each post. Like on facebook, anything and everything that is posted can be responded to by the user. The host in this case takes things a step further than facebook by adding a “reply” feature to each comment. So if you find someone's comment about a painful bellyflop funnier than the actual video, you can congratulate them on their quip by replying only to their comment, creating an isolated “comment string” within the comments section.

Something that seems very apparent upon entering the site is the sheer variety of “taste” in humor. Some posts may show people falling on their faces while attempting dangerous things they shouldn't be doing, while others may simply show examples of poor use in judgment (like a “Fresh Meat” sign placed right below one for an animal shelter). Humor is different for every culture, and Failblog is surely showcases our particular brand. As Zuckerman pointed out with his example of lolcats, however, what we find funny as Americans doesn't necessarily translate well to others. One can argue that if the internet as a whole is a massive community, then each site that invites people to communicate their opinions and ideas promotes a culture all its own.

How does Failblog show us convergence? Just like any other user community that is visited more than ten times a week, there are ads aplenty on Failblog. Side-scrollers, banners, and click-to-play commercial ads to name a few types that appear on the home page. They tend to be what I call “neutral” advertisements; that is, ads that would appeal to the average citizen no matter what age, class or preferences you might personally have. This differs from sites like facebook which tailor their ads specifically to your likes and dislikes. For someone who is not at all fond of ads and uses ad-blockers on their browser like me, this may seem inconsequential. To someone who is not fond of having companies know their intimate details for corporate gain, however, Failblog seems quite friendly. As Burgess and Green would say, this lack of labeling users into demographic lumps for profit helps to promote a “welcoming environment for participation and user-led innovation”.

In the end, Failblog is no different than any other social networking site, in that it propagates the sharing of ideas and culture through imagery and opinion. Given enough time, Failblog will help lend credence to the old adage “a rolling stone gathers no moss”. As humor evolves, so will the website's content, and, given it's apparent popularity (one has only to attempt counting the number of posts and comments) it isn't likely to stop making people laugh any time soon. As Burgess and Green said, merely the act of uploading “serves as a way for the group to talk among themselves, and to the broader community, using the same media texts that bring them together”.

Ugliest Website ...

Did I do that??

My First Internet Experience ...

When I first started using the internet, Metallica were still the kings of Napster (despite their hotly disputed "rock-n-roll-worthiness" due to their "dramatic" change in hairstyle) and AOL reigned supreme. My parents bought into the internet service provider giant's demands of $25 a month, and it is from this medium that I first launched a campaign to dominate chat rooms everywhere. More specifically, role playing chat rooms. No, I'm not talking about the kind of role playing where you dress up like a dog and pretend to play fetch with strangers at a convention in the desert. I'm talking about online fantasy role playing. And what, exactly, is that, besides a part of my past I'm not hugely proud of? Allow me to explain.

Online fantasy role playing (“RPGing” for short), was something kids like me (and many adults) did in their down time to escape the “real world” in a virtual place made of text and heavy descriptions, and connect to others of like-minds. Essentially, it was World of Warcraft or Everquest without any visual stimulation besides the words on the screen. So even though, in my case, I was running AOL on an IBM computer with Windows 95 and probably 16Mb of RAM (at most), the only thing slow and frustrating was the time it took to connect.

To give an example of what the “real world” might look like as an RPG, I will demonstrate using a typical day in the classroom.

Joel: *He saunters in, knowing full well he has arrived five minutes late, book bag slung over one shoulder, and looks to the projection on the wall*

DJStanovsky: *with his usual vigor and enthusiasm, he continues explaining the Double Rainbow phenomenon sweeping the nation, with a quick glance to the newcomer*

DJStanovsky: Hello there.

Joel: Hey. *he offers a small nod then takes his seat toward the back of the classroom*

The amazing thing to me was that not only was this type of online chatting popular, but providers like AOL had set up official chat rooms specifically for us imaginative-minded dorks to play in. Not only that, but they paid people they called “moderators” to keep the “riff raff” out of the chats (I would guess to keep the regulars happy, and thus paying, dorks).

Despite the profitability factor, I believe Bush would find this level of creative interaction progressive. It certainly is a platform for shared ideas, and ties in nicely to his take on science as “communication between individuals” which provides “a record of ideas and has enabled man to manipulate and to make extracts from that record so that knowledge evolves and endures throughout the life of a race rather than that of an individual.” I believe he is addressing the social interaction that allows ideas to flow, which, even in a “normal” virtual chat setting, occurs as a rule. In fact throughout the life of any given chat room, there are “regulars”, and friendships (if you believe friends can be made through a texting platform) that forge small “communities” of those with like-minds.

The source of inspiration for the nerds like me who participated in role playing chats can not be ignored, as it played a large role in their online interactions. Bush spoke of the memex, a self-invented idea of knowledge including pictures, books and all other manner of media. Of course, though he did not realize it, Bush was describing the internet in its most rudimentary terms. What struck me as more relevant to chatting, however, was his description of how the human mind works. That it “operates by association”. What was the purpose of RPG chatting if not to communicate with others by way of common association? In this case, I believe the way we associated was two-fold. For one, there was the basic human need to interact with those sharing a common interest. And secondly, on a more cerebral level, we associated what we were typing with our knowledge and experiences with the fantasy genre. I would not go so far as to call RPG chatting “a great lost art that will be sorely missed”, but it was enjoyable at the time, and while it was popular, it fueled the imagination of thousands. Though I doubt it will ever make a comeback (those same geeks who participated are now being spoiled by a slew of MMORPG games), I believe it was crucial in showing the world that people still loved fantasy, and perhaps was partially responsible for the huge market for it that exists today. Bush described the detail of mental pictures as “awe-inspiring beyond all else in nature.” I would have to agree, because with the help of just a few words in the window of a chat room, it once created worlds.

A few of my favorites

I'm big into gaming as well as humor, so this little comedy vlog was an instant hit with me ...
Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin'?

Here's an example of a great online game I would waste my time on when I'm completely bored ...
Toon Crisis (may require Flash)

And if you're wondering what one of my all-time favorite viral videos might be (and I know you are, don't lie), may I present the WTF Blanket, parody of the ever-popular Snuggie (which, beyond all comprehension, people are still buying) ... (NSFW - strong language)