Social Hallucinations

Gangnam Style - how to make a hit

I have stumbled upon Psy and his Gangnam Style two month ago and I was very entertained by the good beat and kitschy video. But it seems like there is more to "Gangnam Style" than just being a South Korean summer hit. Psy has taken the world by storm, got a lot of attention from the international media, got an American record deal and taught Britney Spears the moves.

Everybody loves a horse - riding dance, but there is more to Gangnam Style than just catchy tune and cheesy moves. "Gangnam Style" is a good example of how to create content that lives and breathes in digital, content that people wants to share and engage with. Psy has cracked the code of storytelling: the story is not what your tell but what others make out of it. His video not only generated over 300 mil. views but also a lot of parodies, remakes, mash-ups that bring even more attention and conversations.

Psy has planned from the very beginning not only for the distribution of his video, by choosing to remove copyright from his video, he gave people the right to redistribute his work, encourage them to create their own versions of the video...and there are plenty of those.

What is also interesting about the video and especially the horse-riding dance, Psy has asked the Korean dance community for their input when choreographing the dance. It has given him for sure a lot of credit in the community and helped to promote the video. 

He has probably also touched some cultural tension with his mocking-up of the rich and those who pursue the dream of being like the rich. Blogger of My Dear Korea told The Atlantic, the video is an ironic look at “Gangnam itself but it’s also about how people outside of Gangnam pursue their dream to be one of those Gangnam residents without even realizing what it really means.” 

Here is the original video and the funniest parodies

 

 

PSY vs LMFAO - Sexy Style (Mash-up) - fit perfectly together

 

PSY - "MIKO STYLE" (Gangnam Style) Parody By Miss Korea 2012 Contestants

 

Lifeguard Style (Gangnam Style Remake) - the remake got the lifeguards fired

 

GANGNAM STYLE PARODY (강남스타일) - The Oregon Duck

 

Nomophobia

In a few days I am taking away on the vacation into the wild. I have been feeling kind of anxious the past few days and today I've just realized that it is simply because I will be visiting places where there is no mobile coverage. What scared me is not the fact that I will be disconnected, but the fact that I will not be able to Google things up when I need a help or guidance. It is rather scary how dependent I've become on the instant access to the information. I apparently suffer from nomophobia - the fear of being out of mobile phone contact.

Photo by Foomandoonian

 

For nomophobics access is everything. There are many companies who utilize this and provides the solutions like: iPavement - the first intelligent pavement with its own operating system and suite of apps that embeds WiFi hotspots in the street, or a "soda" machine that dispenses internet access to mobile phone in the public space by Coca Cola - Coke Happiness Refill. The name says it all.

Well, it all looks amazing but I guess it will be healthy for me to try to face my nomophobia and enjoy my time off without instant sharing with the world.

The Second Screen

I love this picture by Scott Macklin showing young boys watching Super Bowl on TV 2012. Nothing to add. The Almighty Second Screen. There are no two worlds. Online and offline are merged. This is the real revolution - we have adopted the new behavior. 

How Do Clothes Impact Your Image?

What to wear? A serious challenge. Who hasn't faced the closet full of clothes and who hasn't after minutes of browsing concluded with disappontment that there is nothing to wear. The time spent by women picking clothes is often the subjects of jokes but this is a serious challenge as clothes impact the way you are perceived as this fascinating project "Switcheroo" by Hana Pesut shows. 

 

 

"Meditation is a waste of good shopping time"

The next Spring of Nations will be lead by jesters, those who still manage to maintain the common sense and have valuable insights and views on the society. 

 

The value of not knowing

Those words brought me a relief. I've lately relized that the more I know the less I can digest and use. The overload and overconsumption of information gives an illusion of knowing more, but in fact the more becomes the stress. The quest for informaiton expands all the time and seems to be infinite. I've found saying "I don't know" to be a soothing exprience. Not knowing may become the new luxury nowadays. Besides some things are just not worth to know.

"We need to remember the value of nothing. It’s like breathing: you can’t inhale all day. We need to learn to make peace with the information we don’t know, to embrace the zeroes, to relearn the pleasures of hunger, need, interruption, restraint. We need to work up our ignorance muscles. We need to organize our internal absences to create meaning. We are responsible, in other words, now and forever, for our own deletionism."

Sam Anderson in ‘An Accidental, Experimental Masterpiece’

 

The History of Human Thinking

“All the left brain thinking and figuring out, can’t ever replace the shear mystery of being alive”

The history of human thinking from the caveman days forward. In so doing he links more than 4 decades of data driven developmental psychology research (based upon the work of Clare W. Graves) to the dramatic narrative of human evolution.

 

 

Virtual Suicide

Virtual self is increasingly important part of our lives. Internet creates a virtual stage where we can play another role (roles) in the process of creating and inventing ourselves. Virtual identity is equal to the real life identity for many. Some creates new persona, which they don't dare to be in the real life. Virtual space gives more room and possibilities to stage the self...instant and with no limits.

But it takes time.

But it takes you away from the real live.

But it creates false hopes and expectations, which often can't be met where person meets a person.

It doesn't stop the ego...

Full of hope, we dedicate the time to show whom we are or whom we would like to be. impersonating the dreams, becoming the celebrities and paparazzi's of our own lives. Deprived of privacy. 

The mystery is broken.

What would it happen when you would let your Internet life die...would your real life start? Whom would you be? 

Will committing the virtual suicide impact you and your life? Is it immoral to encourage people to commit virtual suicide? Is a virtual identity just another shiny object of XXI century destined to extinct or is it something to last? or is it the extension of our personality? 

so many questions...less answers. We see the new things being created in front of our eyes. This may get us scared and seek the refuge in the seemingly safe past. This may lead us to radical actions...like this oneWeb2.0 Suicide Machine. 

“Web 2.0 Suicide Machine”  allows users to permanently delete their accounts from social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter.

Is something bad that encourages us to partially destroy our lives or is it just a funny gimmick, helping us to distance ourselves from our virtual self? 

Would you dare to take the step and sign out forever?

 

 

The Douche

Interesting documentary by BBC Human Planet of the species of hunters - the douche

 

Giving people opportunity to help themselves

Getting people out of poverty is not just about giving them money, it is about giving them opportunity to help themselves. Seeing the need, fulfilling it at creating the movement is what happened when Pedals for Progress and founder David Schweidenback have shipped over 20.000 used American bicycles to Rivas, Nicaragua. Amazing transformation caused by giving the people opportunity to be mobile.

 

The Bicycle City. Trailer from Greg Sucharew on Vimeo.

Rules of Life

Does life has any rules? Or is it just a subject to unpredictable events? I've been always fascinated by people setting clear rules or resolutions and wondered how far can you go to stick to them? When you decide to change and adapt? 

Today I've stumbled upon Tolstoy's 10 Rules of Life. Seems like tough rules for live...he broke them many times but it is amazing how we do strive for the clear guidance and map for our lives. Does having rules make us happier?

Could you imagine living by his rules? Do you? 

1. Get up early (five o’clock) 
2. Go to bed early (nine to ten o’clock)
3. Eat little and avoid sweets
4. Try to do everything by yourself
5. Have a goal for your whole life, a goal for one section of your life, a goal for a shorter period and a goal for the year; a goal for every month, a goal for every week, a goal for every day, a goal for every hour and for evry minute, and sacrifice the lesser goal to the greater
6. Keep away from women
7. Kill desire by work
8. Be good, but try to let no one know it
9. Always live less expensively than you might
10. Change nothing in your style of living even if you become ten times richer.

"What thing about humanity surprises you the most?"

"Man…. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived." (Dalai Lama)

I've been giving it a thought lately, trying to reverse the course of twisted thinking. 

HT Neil

Montaigne and Neuroscientists

I've just read this very interesting article in the Guardian about Montaigne's insight into human nature that gets confirmed now by neuroscience. 

"Four hundred years ago, the great French essayist recognized that our inbuilt capacity for sympathy depends on our physical proximity to others. Recent neurological research appears to back him up." 

Very interesting that our morality is so tightly bound to the physical distance. It would indicate that despite what 'cyber utopians' believe we will not make the world better place cause we are connected more than ever. Internet doesn't get us any closer. Even though we feel we are so close, we are far away from each other and it influences our ability to feel sympathy and to fire the mirror neurons. 

HT: Mark Earls

Stereotypes

Stereotypes, we hate them but we can't help from falling for them. They make the world around us more predictable and controllable. Everything and everyone has a defined place in it and it makes us safe. 

Here is an interesting idea for 2011 calendar - The Calendar of prejudice. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See more here

via Angus

Moments that change you

There are some moments in your life that strike you hard and make you rethink everything you’ve done so far. I had such a moment during my trip to South Africa when I’ve visited a few townships.

Townships were and still are areas reserved for non-whites. One of the townships I visited was Khayelitsha close to Cape Town. Khayelitsha means “New Home” and  is a mix of old and new, formal and informal and affluent and poor. There are housing projects which are continuously on the go, to alleviate the housing problems, but shacks are continuously being erected by the steady stream of people arriving from the Eastern Cape.

Khayelitsha is the home for around 2 million people, but no one is really counting. Majority of people is living in terrible conditions: shacks with holed roofs, no toilets, no water facilities. There are people everywhere. Small streets are stacked with shacks, bricked government houses, small bars and shops. Coca - Cola signs are everywhere as well as smiling and playful children. I was walking through Khayelitsha surrounded by wonderful kids, who loved being photographed. They modeled, took funny poses, from cute to gangster cool. I’ve been to small kindergartens where grown-ups struggled to ensure roof isn’t leaking and get some mattresses for children to sleep. I’ve talked to neglected children, children with AIDS who starved for human contact and attention. Looking into their eyes, I’ve seen so many sad stories. The time I spent playing with them was one of the most wonderful moments in my life. 

I’ve hear lot of wonderful stories about how people love “New Home” and they would never move from there. I could sense the powerful community that did their best to turn the area into save homes. 

Then I’ve met a lot of young men who had no job, were just sitting around in their clean and neat Nike outfits, drinking beers, playing pool and having high expectations of other people to give them money...Sad and not constructive at all. 

I do believe the education is the way to start the change and the evolution. I wouldn’t want the people to move from the area and lose the strong sense of the community they have. The kids just need a good care, love and education that will give them a better start and opportunity to make something out of their lives and pull them away from the streets and away from the influence of bad role models. 

Change can also start with small steps. Small adjustments and improvements. And I would like to help that change on its way. Those kids and people let me in into their lives with my camera and I took wonderful pictures and I’d like to thank them for this and give them something in return - help them improve their kindergartens, make them safer and more educative. I would like you to join me. If you like the pictures and feel like helping those kids, please donate any amount. Anything will help and make a difference and help to make kindergartens better. I will keep you posted with the developments as well as you will receive the picture of your choice in high resolution.

 

Please donate here and spread the word. Thank you :)

 

I am also considering making an exhibition with those pictures to collect money - looking for any gallery interested. :)

You can see all pictures here on Flickr.