We do not live in public

Currently the socialmediasphere is abuzz about Tumblr’s decision to reconfigure its entire site (or “Dashboard”) to accommodate Justin Johnson’s video-crafted marriage proposal to Marissa Nystrom. And, of course, she said yes.

Marissa, will you marry me? from justin on Vimeo.

Now, no doubt, an infestation of lifestyle journalist hacks will descend upon the “story” to document our life in these most curious of social media times. But Ondi Timoner’s pleadings aside, we’d like to interject a healthy dose of reality with the following proclamations:

1. We don't live like this: The last time I checked, many—though not all—of us live in houses or apartments, that’s how and where we distinguish our private space from public. True, we have cell phones and now waste the time that used to get wasted on comic books and sitcoms with things like Facebook, but we still live in private. Hey Ondi, I saw your film, but the more interesting thing is that when you and Josh were living in that giant tunnel pretending to be artists, nobody even cared…because they didn’t know! They were in their homes! Get it?
2. Nobody I know ever lives like Justin and Marissa: As others wiser than we have pointed out, the marriage proposal looks much more like life in a Zach Braff film (i.e., Garden State) than the everyday reality of mere mortals such as ourselves. Our friends have real life problems like broken cars, diabetes and divorce and tend to focus on much more important things than spending 6 years documenting their relationship with a $2000 video camera and a suite of editing tools.
3. It is a sad world when the notion of love becomes a commercial to lure the clueless marketing types further into the imagined world of social media.

Remember, social media is like advertising, if you would just quit looking and listening, maybe—just maybe—they’d go away.
 
Bottom line? Like wow man...

Comments

[gualetar]

The subject is fully clear but why does the text lack clarity? But in general your blog is great.