The Uncomfortable and Unethical Decision of Josh Harris
Warning: Brief mentions of self harm, suicide, rape, and abuse are all present in this article.
We Live in Public is an indie film and documentary released in 2009. It documents the life of Josh Harris, an internet pioneer. Josh always saw the internet and online communication to be the future. Even when technology didn’t agree with him, he insisted and sought out to prove he was right. The documentary on his life made me feel incredibly uncomfortable.
The first major uncomfortable part was when the audience was introduced to Josh’s character “Luvvy”. This character is someone Josh would dress up as in a weird way to be more friendly. Luvvy is the creepiest, most horrifying thing I have ever seen. I’d include a picture but I genuinely never want to see him again. Luvvy looks like a clown, which I and many other people find off-putting or unsettling. Josh would dress up as this character at important business related events. He thought this was acceptable and welcoming, neither of which are true.
Josh had this idea that in the future, all parts of everyone’s lives will be online for anyone else to see. Naturally he took it to the extreme by creating “Quiet We Live in Public”, an experiment where people would live together in cramped spaces and were recorded 24/7. Food, water, everything, was all all provided to the participants, according to Josh the only thing that wasn’t theirs was the videos being taken of them. This is where the second major part happened that left me uncomfortable.
Josh’s experiment was clearly a cult. They wore the same clothes. There was a place of worship that had their symbol. They grew entirely dependent on the facility for any basic resources. What’s worse is the facility’s interrogation room. This is where I feel Josh had really crossed the line. People were psychologically tortured in this room. People would be forced to reinact how they self harmed or attempted suicide. This is not okay, and it’s sick to think anyone would do this to another person. I find bringing that up as triggering to myself, and I know other’s will feel the same way.
Conditions were not ideal in Quiet We Live in Public. Constant video surveillance left no time to oneself, this began to wear on people. Each person had just a bed to themselves. The environment looked unsafe and unsanitary. The scene that made me the most uncomfortable in the documentary was of what appreared to be a woman being raped by another person inside Josh's experiment. That was it for me. Not only has Josh created an experiment where something like this is happening, he also doesn’t stop or do anything about it. He lets a woman be raped for his sick experiment. Valuing his work over other human lives is horrible. Luckily the police shut it all down soon.
Out of subjects for his experiment, Josh started testing on himself. Josh and his new girlfriend Tanya were always on camera, their entire lives entirely public. This was a bad idea, just about anyone could tell you this is not a good thing to put on a new relationship. Surprisingly, Josh and Tanya started fighting, each one wanting to prove to viewers that they won. Their environment became toxic, and only got worse. Josh became (or always was) abusive, he was already an expert on psychological abuse, which is what Tanya received at first. Eventually it was followed by him grabbing her, and her needing to fight back. Josh’s audience shrunk quickly, Tanya left, and he was out of money. This was the final major uncomfortable moment, but really highlights the overall feeling while learning of Josh’s life.
I’ve heard of Josh talked about as if he is someone worth looking up to, like he did this amazing thing. He was abusive, manipulative, and often cared little of others. It doesn’t matter if you have a gift if you don’t use it correctly. Josh Harris did not use his gift correctly. He is already very smart and talented. He is unique in many ways. I wish he was able to show that without causing harm to others. Hopefully that’s what he is doing now in Ethiopia, as he coaches a soccer team there.
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