Anil posted this video on his blog. It is an interesting video about how the TV Craze started even when we were kids. I remember as a kid, my father was one of the first to have a video camera back in the early 80's. There are videos of me and my brother making music videos, me always trying to grab the camera from my dad, family gatherings, etc. Later in High School friends and I made our own shows and movies together on weekends for fun. I think that my generation has grown up with video. The question is do we really act differently in front of the camera now or have we become so accustomed to it that it is as if our whole lives have become one big reality show with everyone and no one watching. It's no wonder that people nowadays are suffering from something called the Truman Show Disorder. It's where people believe that they are constantly being filmed, everyone friends, family etc. has been replaced by actors, so on and so forth. Is it any wonder when almost every cell phone has the ability to capture video and broadcast it to the world that we feel this paranoia?
So here is my take on it. Unfortunately I don't see it stopping. I don't see it slowing down at all. So how do we cope, how do we maintain our sense of selves rather than the "Show Selves" we wish to portray to the rest of the world? For me personally I do have a "Show GabeMac" that i am on Mobuzz.tv, and another GabeMac offline. Of course there are similarities, but on my own video blogs, the personal ones, I open to the world as well. Such as when i turned 30, my grandmother died, or when Tamara and I broke up. Those are extremely personal videos that I opened to the world. Many friends and family say that I am nuts for doing that, yet at the same time, many online friends have expressed deep appreciation for those videos to me in confidence. Is it safe to do so? Is it right to do so? I don't know. All I know is that it has become a part of my life in sharing and exchanging with the world. Many are afraid that Big Brother is watching all this. In the end, I think it's actually lots of Little Brothers watching, and when everyone's secrets are out in the open, we become aware that everyone has those secrets. Those moments of weakness, pain, joy and love. Of course they are special, but they will no longer become something we have to be ashamed of.
I think the main question to leave you with here is through video blogging are we increasing our EGOs, giving them steroids and loosing our true selves, or will the EGO become so inflated that they burst leaving just a true self and harmony in the end. I'm curious about your feelings. This is all very new folks, and we have a lot of growing up to do and understanding with this new medium.