The effects of Peep

            Hal Niedzviecki is a smart man. I never thought too much about how social media has affected this world until his discussion yesterday about Peep culture. Hal described Peep culture as “reality TV, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, MySpace and Facebook.” It is pretty much anything on the Web that exploits people and their lives, whether put there by themselves or others. He talked about how we love Peep culture because it gives us a place to tell our story to anyone who wants to listen. We want to reach out to the community around us, without having to make much of an effort. The idea of connection with low expectation is the fact that people want to connect with each other, but don’t actually want to “hug” each other. The virtual world allows us to get close to each other, without getting too close. Once Hal said this, it was such an eye-opener for me. I completely agree with this idea. I have a bunch of friends on Facebook, but only a select few that I actually hang out with or see on a regular basis. For me, I like to see where high school friends are now in their lives, and what’s going on with them. Even though we’re not really friends anymore, it’s still a sort of connection I have with that part of my life, and it’s entertaining. Who’s getting married, who’s pregnant now, and who’s dating whom? It’s addicting.

            Many people become part of the Peeping world because they feel alone. They search for acceptance from followers or other bloggers- people who have similar interests and people that they can relate to. Hal talked about a woman who blogs because she feels that’s the only way she can be her complete self. The world today is becoming more of a virtual world than flesh. Although the virtual world may feel more rewarding to us, like we’re connecting to so many people, we actually have a disconnect from people. Not as many people know their neighbors or the others around them. They only know people through the computer. But how much do those 800 “friends” of yours on Facebook really mean to you? In relation to Facebook at least, Hal said, “we’ve polluted the word ‘friend’ to mean virtually nothing.” This is so true. Such a smart, smart man.