Feb 21
We Live in Public
We Live in Public, a documentary following the life of Josh Harris is quite an interesting story, to say the least. Through a variety of business ventures, social experiments, and personal exploration, Harris demonstrated some of the crazy consequences of integrating life with the internet.
During the 1990s, Harris founded Pseudo.com which was the first internet television network. At a time when the internet was seeing exponential growth, the network took off and established itself as a legit alternative to a standard television. Harris through raging parties to recruit content creators that were just itching for a platform to share their creativity. He was making millions of dollars from capitalizing on being one of the first entrepreneurs to bring television and entertainment to the web.
After the successful introduction of Pseudo, Harris (with his loaded pockets) moved onto a different approach. He claimed that technology was having a grand effect on personal identity. While his claims weren’t technically wrong — the social experiment that was born out of his ideas was absolutely insane. Harris built an underground compound complete with sleeping pods, fully stocked kitchen services, shooting range, etc. Participants were willing to take advantage of these services for free…well not exactly free. The catch was that the participants were to be filmed at all times. The project was deemed “Quiet: We Live in Public” and people were begging to take part. Each person’s sleeping pod was equipped with a TV where they could watch the others. As Harris predicted, people were willing to exchange their privacy for recognition from others online. As time progressed the psychological states of the participants dwindled and so did the experiment. After just a month, “Quiet” was shut down by police.
After the demise of “Quiet”, Harris moved onto a similar but more personal project. Harris outfitted his move to broadcast every aspect of his (and his girlfriend’s) life. For six months, he publically streamed his life on the internet. Through the process, he lost his girlfriend, his money, and his sanity — all recorded and distributed for the world to see.
While Harris proved his theories in extreme ways, his message really wasn’t that far off. As the film described, Harris’s idea of the internet corrupting ourselves was ahead of its time. His projects were produced before the age of social media. People were and are still willing to give up their privacy in order to be seen, noticed, and appreciated on the internet. We constantly share our photos, updates, thoughts, and ideas for the world to see, share, and comment on. The internet has brought us some incredible things, but it also may have corrupted our last ounce of privacy. I don’t condone the “Quiet” and “We Live in Public” projects/experiments, however, they do demonstrate some of the consequences of living in public via the internet.
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