In The Mind of a Sociopath
We Live In Public has got to be one of THE WEIRDEST movies/documentaries I have ever watched in my life. We Live In Public is a documentary that came out in the late 2000s. It goes into great detail about the eccentric endeavors of Josh Harris, the internet entrepreneur that I’ve never heard of. He starts a cult-like experiment where he offers free room and board in this underground bunker. The only expense is your privacy, you cannot hide from the eyes of the other members of the bunker. This experience lasts for about a month until it ends up getting shut down by the cops. He decides then that it’s not enough for him. He does the same experiment however just with his girlfriend in his loft, being the first couple to live in the eyes of the public. Just like in a relationship, there was the honeymoon phase where things were going great. As time went by the two began to deteriorate until she snaps, and eventually leaves Josh. Josh continues to live in public but we see how his mental health begins to deteriorate. Josh then decides that enough is enough, shutting down his experiment and moving on with his life.
This was a very extreme way of showing the negative effects of the internet. I know watching this movie I was very tense and uncomfortable watching how these people had their mental health deteriorate because of this “experiment”. I also didn’t understand how these participants were so willing to be a part of this experiment. There was a trend of people Josh recruited for the experiment. Most if not all of the people who decided to participate in this were some kind of performer or artist. In the context of New York City, that demographic sometimes struggle to live comfortably or to even get by. That’s why it’s called “starving artist”, they give their all to their work, their craft to the point where they go hungry. These people were willing to give up their privacy to be provided with free food and a place to sleep.
Even though his experiment in NYC was a bit extreme, I do believe that it was worth it to show how detrimental the effects of the internet can get. However, when he brought it into his relationship and into his private home I believed that was where the line was crossed. I think its just a sense of cognitive dissonance to me. I come from a family where our personal life stays personal unless we have a good reason, for example, medical emergencies. But having your entire life public to anyone and everyone really caused me to stress just watching because its something that just seemed completely outrageous to me. What confused me, even more, was why the girlfriend agreed to do that with him if she saw how the artists deteriorated in the first experiment.
This movie made me think not only about how bad the internet can get but also (this is a little off-topic) but how more open people were in the 1990s. I guess since in the 1990s since the internet was just beginning, most communities weren’t aware of the dangers that could occur over the internet so they were more open to doing an experiment like this. Overall, this movie really challenged the cultural values I hold to a point of discomfort.
