stickam stickup
February 16th, 2009
When I moved to New York the city was experiencing a “moment” of sorts that was special beyond even the normal craziness attributed to Manhattan. While I was preparing to write this I had to wonder whether this feeling was justified. Is it vain to think that I could have possibly been part of a movement… of something truly game changing?
I think the answer lies in the internet and more specifically in social networks. We take them for granted now but it was only a few years ago that they did not exist at all and even less time that they existed to serve the masses like they do today. Back in ‘04 these burgeoning communities were mostly made up of trendsetters and computer nerds (don’t ask which one I was) and for the former group the profile picture suddenly became a huge issue. This vain desire for the proper portrait would create international sensations out of 3 underage DJs named after a Pulp Song and a tall black Warholian named Merlin. MisShapes gave kids a weekly portrait with credibility and LastNightsParty.com exposed the downtown debauchery and the kids that caused it to the world at large and nightlife and the internet haven’t been the same since.
Its been almost five years now since I landed in Brooklyn and the internet has evolved and transformed to a point that’s almost unrecognizable. But I feel very secure in saying that vanity still plays a huge role in how the internet has changed and how we have changed with the internet. Whether we’re whining to the world on our blog or transcribing the minutiae of our daily lives via twitter the underlying message is that everyone has something worth sharing and that everything shared has an audience waiting to ingest it.
Since I am a bit of a web 2.0 fanatic I spend an inordinate amount of my time trying to properly capture and understand this zeitgeist. Recently I’ve become quite obsessed with what I feel is a transformative addition to the already crowded chat landscape. The site is called Stickam and it combines regular chat room features with the wonders of webcam and the youth have gone gaga over it. As can be expected its hormonally charged with tons of quasi pedophilic ramblings but hey… its an internet chatroom… nothing new there.
What’s amazing is how this takes the ME generation to a whole new level. The ability to create your own live video broadcast where hundreds of people can gather to focus totally on you takes the 15 minutes of fame paradigm to a whole new level. Just observing these kids will blow your mind… this next generaton is going to be CRAZY!! So let it be known webcrawlers… counting your blog comments or YouTube video hits no longer needs to be your measure of online popularity. Now you can become a Stickam Entertainer and watch the video spots fill up… oh and I’ll be the one in the panama hat.
Written by Zac |