WE LIVE IN PUBLIC

I came across this trailer for the new documentary about the internet and its social effects on us all, "We Live In Public." (NSFW, btw)



It has already won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Festival for Best Documentary this year, so I will make a point to see it when it opens here in Seattle next month. I am also a fan of its director, Ondi Timoner, who made the cool rock doc "DIG!," featuring my beloved Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre.



"We Live In Public," like "DIG!," was filmed over many years and focuses on artist Josh Harris, whose experiments in publicly exposing every minute detail of human existence were both fascinating and disturbing. From the film synopsis:

Harris proved how we willingly trade our privacy for the connection and recognition we all deeply desire, but with every technological advancement such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, becomes more elusive.

Social relationships have forever changed because of the web. It has never been easier to connect with people all over the world, instantly, and also never has been harder to face the plain hard work of real-life interactions. There are multiple generations now who easily navigate social networking sites, who can embellish, schmooze, over-confess, and internet warrior with complete confidence, then are utterly flummoxed and awkward when forced to communicate with actual people. We are a world of tapping keyboardists in a computer glow, greedily gathering the immediacy and power of our virtual connections rather than deal with who we really are, reflected on a real human face standing in front of us.

It's too tempting to be a god, and too painful to be mortal.