Obamma and the Wild Web
February 24th, 2008 Richard Posted in politics, web and new media |
There was a great article by Jose Antonio Vargas, in yesterday’s Washington post about Obama Fever breaking on the web. Vargas contends
In recent days, sites have popped up indicating that the ongoing online Obamamania has hit a wall. What kind of wall? A snarky, ironic, this-Obama-thing-has-gotten-over-the-top wall.
He then goes on to describe sites such as SenatorObamas.com and Is Barack Obama the Messiah?, interesting and negative variations on the Obama phenomenon.
I don’t see this web development is as negative as the title implies, rather it is inevitable, and it does make the important point that Obama on the web has grown way beyond the control of Obama’s campaign organizers. The web culture has taken the Obama message and facilitated it through YouTube videos like Yes I Can, and the more recent, and more entertaining, No You Can’t. Since that time, as the article points out, things have gotten out of hand, the Obama archetype has been co-opted, remixed, exaggerated, attacked, and generally taken on a life (many lives) of its own; good, bad, and ugly.
That’s the way the web works. Something grows at exponential speeds, and then branches off into a cornucopia of interrelated entities, each containing some part of the original, and no one can control it. Not even a Barak Obama or his campaign - they can only hang on for the ride.
February 25th, 2008 at 8:00 am
I’ll throw this out there again - as an Internet dweller and general geek I tend to think of what goes on online as the world I live in, but I still don’t think enough of the mainstream exists there sufficiently for what happens to be all that relevant. I don’t think it translates to reality most of the time.
If I walk up to 100 people in the street and tell them that “the cake is a lie” or start throwing lolcat-language at them, I’ll be surprised if 2 of them know what the heck I’m talking about. The other 98 are definitely calling the police. In general, I think the people who are existing in the space are sarcastic by nature - I know I am - but I don’t think the Internet backlash translates to reality unless the MSM starts talking about it and drags it out of the web and into the ‘normal’ peoples’ living rooms.
I think that the people living in the ‘real world’ are still riding the crest of Obamamania and won’t get to backlash for a while now. I mean, just last week I heard Chris Matthews (Hardball, MSNBC) talking about getting a ‘thrill up his leg’ when he heard Obama talk. So, us cool kids are on to the next cool thing - but by the time everyone else catches up the only political choice will be Obama and McCain and there’s really nothing cool about McCain, right..?
Not that he can’t win but he can’t be that ‘next cool thing’ that people latch onto, imho.
February 26th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Well the Obama Girl video was entertaining. I couldn’t tell if she really was promoting him, just making fun of him, or if she really wanted to pole dance for him.
I definitly agree with Christain I am not sure that mainstream people would get the language of the net. If I didn’t have so many kids with facebooks that I keep track of I’m not sure I’d get it. I remember in high school their was classes for shorthand; it was very difficult to learn, a new language so to speak. Perhaps we’ll have to start having ‘internet speak’ classes.
February 26th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
I’ve been rethinking my position a little - I think I may be arguing % of immersion. I’m swimming waaaay deep in the Internets while most people are mostly floating on the surface. So they may not see the whole picture, but just being connected by the water they’re being carried along by the tide. I’ve definitely gotten some cool links emailed to me by people that I was shocked had gotten them - people I only usually get chain letters from.
So I may have overstated my case earlier just a bit. But I have a penchant for exaggerration so you’ll have to excuse me.
February 26th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
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