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Random bloke says

R We smart

Very general question do you think the amount of time we spend indulging in such entertainment activities makes us smarter, leaves us on the same level or worse than we started from? Don’t you think this is actually consuming a lot of time at this stage of our life?

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Another random says
I read an article about a year ago talking about a study involving some surgeons and 21 surgical residents. Basically it was concluded that surgeons with skills in video games were more precise than others without. I really don’t see how that can be, it seems like a coincidence to me, but that’s what the study found and I thought it was very interesting. I would like to hear your thoughts on this.

[1] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070220012341.htm

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PAUL SAYS

Internet Fame - The future of our celebrities?

Over the last few years, 'normal' people who have used the Internet to broadcast about their lives via mediums such as youtube[1] or blogs have become famous, not only across the Internet but in their real everyday lives.

Obviously, when thinking of Internet fame, you must first define what 'fame' is. Afterall, fame could be declared as 'being known by a majority of people within a community of a certain size', which by that reckoning could mean that even our lecturers are really 'famous' when you think of the community as being the department of system engineering at Reading.

However, with that example if you asked someone who does not go to Reading University or have an interest in anything computing related, they probably wouldn't know who that 'famous' person was. So the question arises over whether the person could actually be classed as 'famous' or not - after all, a popstar could be extremely famous in one country (community of a certain size) but be unknown in another.

The point to this is the number of Internet 'celebrities' that have become famous through broadcasting themselves across the internet, via such sites as Youtube. Youtube has a large number of members, that within the youtube community are 'famous', with a large number of subscribers and often getting hundreds of thousands or millions of views to each of their posted videos. Every once in a while, certain youtube videos (and therefore the person in the video) get seen by millions of people around the world and get as socially known as any normal celebrity or famous person would be.

A perfect example of this is the Numa Numa video[2], getting passed around the internet through emails and message boards, resulting in millions of initial views; then later being picked up by televised programs such as Channel 4's '100 greatest funniest moments', giving a brand new audience to this media.

The Numa Numa video, is an example of a 'entertaining' video reaching a level of fame, but is not a very good example of a 'Internet celebrity'.

However, the first real you tube celebrity, was 'LonelyGirl15'[3], a girl who made video blogs of her life and posted them on the video site, for all to view. Gaining huge popularity into this girls life, many people tuned in to see her new installment of her video blog - gaining a celebrity status similar to a big brother contestant but on a global platform. Due to this popularity, the media investigated into who the real 'LonelyGirl15' was and infact it was shown to be an actress called Jessica Rose, and that the whole series of video's was infact a hoax - marketting products (which the girl had or recommended in her videos) and gaining her the fame she was after.

Since this, Youtube is now full of people blogging about their lives, and doing stunts in an attempt to gain Internet fame, which they hope will eventually lead to real fame and a successful career off the back of it (selling merchandise, getting a record deal, presenting tv shows etc).

Recently I was watching a program on BBC 3 called 'Lilly Allen Presents' which is a chat show featuring 'famous people' being interviewed by Lilly Allen. However, the other day, one of the guests on her show was Tay Zonday[4], a guy who was originally famous on the internet for his song 'chocolate rain', which has got well over 14,000,000 views. As a result of this video, he has now got a record deal, is releasing a updated professional version of the song and has been touring television shows to promote it.

The divide between 'internet fame' and real television fame has become narrower, with many other you tubers featuring on television and radio shows around the world, including British users 'PaperLilies'[5], Charlieissocoollike[6], whataboutAdam[7], MeMeMolly [8] and many others. In general the content also being produced by the latest generation of youtubers, is far more creative, witty and entertaining than the original 'gimmicky' stupid videos that became popular before, with a lot reflecting the level of humour or entertainment that is on par with a lot of professional programs currently being shown on tv.

The latest show by BBC 3 'Upstaged' [9] actually gets people to submit videos of themselves online, which then get voted on by the public, which if they get the highest number of votes, end up on a 'Upstaged' set where they must perform for 6 hours, which in turn gets broadcasted on television via BBC 3 (a bit like big brother).

So, as we move into a world where television and Internet entertainment are merging into one form of creative media, will in the future most of our celebrities be born from internet fame? Is this perhaps a good thing, giving people who would otherwise never of got noticed or given their break, an opportunity to prove themselves on youtube, or perhaps a potential disaster, with our television shows full of Z list celebrities, that make the latest big brother contestant seem geninuely entertaining.



References:

1. Youtube http://www.youtube.com

2. Numa Numa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numa_Numa

3. LonelyGirl15 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonelygirl15

4. Chocolate Rain Song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwTZ2xpQwpA

5. Paperlilies http://www.youtube.com/user/Paperlilies

6. Charlie is so cool like http://www.youtube.com/user/charlieissocoollike

7. What about adam http://www.youtube.com/user/whataboutadam

8. Mememolly http://www.youtube.com/user/mememolly

9. Upstaged http://upstaged.external.bbc.co.uk/upstaged/content/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22&Itemid=77

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