Making It Up As I Go Along #408

Facebook Fame
It used to be that you’d get famous in a limited number of ways. Growing up, I saw fame as being obtained through either a mention in the newspaper (I still have papers kept from the sports sections where I had a homer in a game or three hits), or by time on the radio (where you’d scurry to get a tape set up in the deck to record the memory), or, the biggest of the big, by getting on TV.

The problem now is that it’s too easy to get put in the public eye. The internet brings blogs, websites, and Youtube. Pictures, videos, article comments... you can weigh in or show yourself with ease. The question is, does this make you famous? Or does it just pander to our desires? I guess a third option is that it’s a really good way to share with a select few and you hope the information is hidden in the internet world of facts, figures and photos. Sort of a version of a tree in the woods. Yes the tree that is your website, blog, or facebook page is out there to be discovered. But out of the millions of trees, how likely is it that yours is going to cause much fuss among anyone other than those that look for it.

Back in the day, parents would take pictures of their children in compromising positions. What child doesn’t have a picture of themselves, sprawled out in a bubble bath, with suds hanging from atop the head? Pictures of spaghetti encrusted faces and hands dripping with birthday cake have also been taken for generations.

The difference was, back in the day, only a select few ever saw these pictures. Girlfriends would get the show on their first visit to mom. Grandparents would pay a buck to grandchildren for the privilege of seeing them at such a cute stage of life. Aunts would fawn and uncles would yawn.

Perhaps a few neighbours would be included among the few. But that was it.

Today, Facebook and Youtube are likely the two most intruding tools of a child’s privacy. From infancy up to about the age of twelve, a child has very little say in regards to how their image is portrayed on the internet. I often see the words, pictures, and videos of proud parents and feel that they should pay the child royalties.

And all dignity is brushed away. Today I saw a Youtube video while on Facebook. A video of a baby from five years ago... sitting in his booster seat with his hard plastic trough bib on (those bibs that catch 85% of fallen Cheerios before they become dog snacks). The entire minute and a half is of an unseen dad making beep and boop noises, causing the infant to laugh like an 80 year old man who smoked too much of his life.

I don’t know the kid. I don’t know the father. Yet I got to see this moment because it’s been passed around the internet for years. It’s one of those videos that has gone “viral”.

But I’m left wondering... in another fifteen years... will that child carry a form of resentment towards his parents for giving him cute celebrity status as an infant?

New borns are the worst hit. Every moment of their lives are thrown onto the web for all to see. Sprawled out on their backs asleep... that’s an internet moment. Dressed up like a pumpkin at Thanksgiving... you know that’s an internet moment. Nakedness in a washtub... why of course baby’s first bath deserves to be put on the net.

A child’s only hope for privacy is to be lost in the shuffle. If every parent does this, there will be so many millions of baby bath time pictures that finding any particular one would be like looking for the needle in the haystack. But I pity the young of today. When it comes to those embarrassing shots only a select few saw, even as recently as ten years ago... today’s infants and children will have to live with the fact that millions of strangers from all over the world can see them.

MONDAY...
— Work again. A little uncomfortable with the knee injury. The brace is sore after four or five hours and then, when taken off for a bit, sitting at a station is not great either. Still, things are alright. With the brace on I do a 15 minute walk at break.
— Pre work physio is fine but looks like sports will be a ways off. Most of this summer will be full of walks and not much else.

TUESDAY...
— Greek night at work. Not as good as normal for me. Got to stay away from the Donair wrap next time. Feta and Olives still make it worth while.
— Watch Blazing Saddles in the morning. Never sat and watched it all before. It’s ok... sort of dated now. Two or three very funny scenes.

WEDNESDAY...
— Go to physio in shorts and t-shirt. It’s 16 degrees today. Nice stuff.
— Keeping up with the walks at break. I’m walking slower than normal but it isn’t hurting the knee any.
— Republic of Doyle is getting better and better.
— Groceries and gas after work... and putting out the trash and such... it ends up being an hour and a half from the time I leave work to the time I’m ready to relax. Blah to that.

THURSDAY...
— Long day at work. Just not in the mood to be there. In fact, nobody seems to be. Two left sick... and one took some vacation time. In the end, there were only two of us in my section.

FRIDAY...
— Slow night again. Just too much certification for one week. Good times at supper with some pizza and good laughs with Roz, Janice, Annick, Anne-Marie, and Wade.
— More knee physio earlier in the day. It’s going alright... slow going but always a bit better.

SATURDAY...
— Lazy day with some TV and naps. Mostly hockey on the tube. I’ve tried watching snow board cross since the Olympics. The problem is the regular tour’s coverage is awful. Not in HD... called by some guy in a studio... and tape delayed enough that there are no interviews and no between race talks... plus guitar riff background to the race is very unnecessary.