Skip to main content

The end of ‘someone’

The end of ‘someone’

The following idea is endorsed by all of these people:

None of them exist.

They’re constructs, built by an algorithm. Rights released, happy and smiling, but no one in particular.

Fifty years ago, you couldn’t trust the endorsements in direct marketing ads for lousy products:

“A miracle!” …Bob

Because you knew there wasn’t really a Bob.

Twenty-three years ago, when I created a book with the Weekly World News (yes, this is true), I visited their tiny office in Florida. It consisted of three people and a filing cabinet. Inside the cabinet were pictures of 400 people (mostly friends and former friends of the three editors) that would be cut and pasted in the WWN any time they needed a picture of an expert, a citizen or both. They weren’t news and they weren’t the world, but they were weekly.

I knew that the Weekly World News was low-brow chicanery, but I have a hunch that not everyone did.

In 2019, and perhaps forever, we’re now at a new level, one where the polish of photography or video is no longer any clue at all about the provenance of what we’re encountering.

I don’t think we have any clue about how disruptive this shift is going to be.

Even the real celebrities we purport to trust (“influencers” deliberately in quotes) are easily bought. It used to be only Rula Lenska who we doubted.

There are people and organizations that are racing to break the fabric of community that we all depend on. Either to make a short-term profit or to atomize/vaporize widespread trust to hide from accountability and to slow change.

Like all shifts, there will be a counter-shift. But keep your eyes open, because the rules are clearly changing. Remaining trusted and consistent will become ever more valuable as it becomes more scarce. A resolution to be in higher-resolution for those you seek to serve.

In the meantime, it’s worth confirming the source before you believe what you see.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Narratives about modernity

If we give an isolated community access to the internet, very quickly, the quality of life will improve. Time will be saved, research into proven solutions will produce value, and people will become connected to a larger population. Those connections will lead to productivity and learning. And, then, soon thereafter, they will become less happy. Not because they’re worse off, but because the dominant media narratives that arrive exist to make them feel insufficient, inadequate or simply jealous at how green the grass is over there. Our narrative defeats our surroundings, every time.
Post a Comment
Read more

You’ll never guess Airbnb’s hottest destination for 2020. Really.

Here’s a hint: It’s in the U.S. Planning a trip in the next year? Airbnb has released its hottest destinations for 2020 —a list of cities, countries, and states across the globe that are seeing the largest year-over-year percentage growth in bookings. Of course there are gems you would expect: Hundreds of miles of palm-lined beaches in Kerala, India (which saw a 95% YOY increase), for instance, or the European cultural hot spot Bilbao, Spain (which saw a 402% YOY increase). Read Full Story
Post a Comment
Read more

Experts tell us how coronavirus will weaken China's position as a global trade partner — and endanger its phase-one deal with the US

Kevin Lamarque/Reuters The coronavirus is jeopardizing China's ability to meet obligations it agreed to as part of the phase-one trade deal with the US. China pledged to buy an extra $200 billion worth of US goods over the next two years, but the outbreak is harming the country's purchasing power and demand for numerous imports, according to Stephen Roach, senior lecturer at the Yale School of Management. The pandemic also delays the face-to-face meetings needed to coordinate such large purchases, said Mary Lovely, an economics professor at Syracuse University. Chinese officials could ask the US for leniency in enforcing the deal's timeline, but "we have no idea" how the Trump administration may respond, Lovely noted. Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories . The rapidly spreading coronavirus may have a new victim: the US-China trade agreement. The virus has already wreaked havoc throughout China. Its death toll surpassed 360 people as of ea...
Post a Comment
Read more