The answer is yes.
Since the beginning of the internet, people have used social media to transfer their physical lives onto a digital platform. In doing so, the lines between what is considered public and private on the internet have been significantly blurred. But... why?
According to Lee Humphreys, it isn't really a surprise.
Before the internet, people used diaries. While diaries are generally considered to be private, a lot were actually publicized and were used to chronicle events that took place in the household or community. Diaries were different from other forms of writing in that they were day-to-day entries, creating a timeline. This is similar to 'vlogging' in our day and age.
Vlogging channels have become really popular in recent years as YouTubers create separate channels specifically for "day in the life" style videos. (For the viewers, it seems like double the content; for the creators, it's really double the pay.) No matter what genre of content the YouTubers make, everyone seems to have followed the vlogging bandwagon. Take Bart and Geo for example.
Bart and Geo are a couple who are part of a larger channel on YouTube called JustKiddingFilms. I've been watching the JustKidding fam since my middle school days, and eventually Bart and Geo came out with their separate vlog channel. In the beginning, they used to just show behind the scene footage of JustKidding recording, or footage of them running their separate company, Barbell & Brigade. And then, suddenly they started showing us everything. As a viewer, I felt like I was part of the family. No, seriously.
When the couple announced that they were pregnant, myself, along with many other fans, were excited and anticipated the new baby's arrival. I was practically there when their son, Taika, was born. I was happy watching the content they produced. It was mostly baby stuff since the kid is their first born, but I felt like I had developed a weird connection with this family that lives halfway across the country because of how intimate their videos are.
Eventually, I just stopped being entertained.
The anticipation of having their first kid was what had drew me into their vlog channel because I had been watching JustKidding for so long. But after the fact, I lost interest and couldn't bare to last one of their 40 minute videos of them talking about repainting their walls. How could people talk so much about so little?
One video that threw me off is a video titled "Rip Meatloaf :(" in which the whole video is of Bart and Geo saying their goodbyes to their dog Meatloaf was was being put down due to illness. In the video, Bart holds the camera and explains the situation to the viewers, while Geo cries and comforts Meatloaf in their last moments together. As I was watching this video I kept thinking, Why are they showing us this? Isn't this personal? I was extremely bothered by the fact that instead of using those last moments with their dog to be 100% focused on him, they decided to vlog it.
This is becoming more normalized as people use social media to post about increasingly personal events such as birth and death. It just goes to show that privacy is increasingly becoming obsolete on the internet, what with oversharing and social media companies sending out information to third party companies.
Who knows? Maybe. in the age of internet privacy will become obsolete.
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