image credit: Orin ZebestHumans seem to relish on pointing out the faults in products, places, events and even people. So it's no surprise that the Internet has become an incredible engine for sharing and observing bad news, ideas and offerings. It's probably been a human tendency to want to observe people making terrible mistakes for at least two thousand years (Ancient Greeks watching tragedies), but the Internet seems to have intensified and enabled this desire.
Highlighting Bad Behavior
Journalists, pundits and gossipers have created a cottage industry of highlighting the worst in behavior, ideas and products. This doesn't merely extend to sites like the Drudge Report, PerezHilton and TMZ, but also to more traditional news sites like CNN , the New York Times and the Huffington Post (not quite traditional, but not TMZ). Over the past year or two, there's been a new type of site that's been gaining notoriety amongst the snarky hipsters, which could be loosely categorized as 'fail sites'.
The Fail Target
FailBlog.org is one such example, and it has some pretty funny 'fails' and some that are just really unfortunate. So who's viewing the site? According to Quantcast, it has 2.4 million monthly US unique visitors, and 4.3 million monthly global unique visitors. Clearly, the love of failure is global. It overindexes in single people and people with incomes between US$0-30K. 65% are between 13-34 years old. Probably no surprise in terms of demographics, but the numbers are pretty incredible for a site that feels somewhat one note.
Better Them Then Me
I suspect that it's human nature to want to see other people's failure in order to recognize how fortunate one is - to not be the one in the car accident (rubbernecking), to be caught in an embarrassing scandal or to have created a ridiculous product or business. There's an element of virtual, anonymous 'one up manship'; it enables a type of mental hierarchy, even if that hierarchy doesn't quite manifest itself in the real world beyond video views and snarky comments. We privately and publicly laugh at foolishness and stupidity, because we would never drop so low or be so stupid. We share others' stupidity with our friends and colleagues via Facebook and Twitter .
Aristotle argued that watching tragedy, in the form of a fictional play, was cathartic to its audience - that observing something horrible helped ensure that the person could witness something awful without having to experience it, and hopefully learn from those mistakes. I suggest that in the modern day, there's an additional reason why people are flocking to these sites: to have a laugh at the foolishness and stupidity of others.
Though I'm the greatest advocate of the Internet and social media, all of this makes me wonder if the Internet is driving us towards increased meanspiritedness. How do you get your daily dose of negativity?
Jonathan Cohen
Strategists & Planners
Comments (2)
Great thinking and question, Jonathan. I feel that digital/social media is both increasing the amount of negative AND positive communication around people, businesses and other organizations. Gossip is one of the oldest reasons for communication, as it was used for thousands of years by small societies to punish the wicked/untrustworthy and reward the better neighbors.
This year I made a resolution to stop reading the online advertising tabloids that prey on our industry's self-loathing and jealousy. I'd name them here but don't want to put a target on my back!
Posted on October 21, 2009 10:07
Interesting observation Jonathan - thanks.
To answer your question I don't seek a daily dose of negativity. I guess I took enough Sociology in college to recognize the impulse to define "other" and lately have found techniques for creating "us" a much more interesting and rewarding challenge. Therefore I take no pleasure in other people's failures or tragedy.
Regardless of why negativity exists I agree the internet has made it easier to spread. But if that is the case the same should be true for positivity right? Culture is an interesting organism and I strongly believe each of us has a deeper impact than we know.
Being positive, sharing the things we admire or appreciate is risky because it exposes us to ridicule. But like ripples on a pond each positive impulse you toss out into the world spreads to encourage others to do the same and may eventually turn the tide. Give it a try. You can start by asking yourself if your initial impulse to this comment was that it is dorky or uncool. Then ask yourself why. Then take the same small risk I did and go out and make a simple positive comment of appreciation somewhere.
With a little practice you won't even crave the negativity let alone find it funny. You'll seek out communities (online or otherwise) that revolve around sincerity, intelligence and appreciation for your contributions. This can have a profound impact on your life and work (particularly being in a creative field we're we must constantly expose our work to critique). Better yet start your own positive social network. Certainly the niche is wide open.
Be full.
Posted on October 21, 2009 19:05