Is this Real Life?

Vlogging, or videoblogging, is a relatively new sensation, made famous by Youtube.  Pelle Snickars and Patrick Vonderau say "The form has antecedents in webcam culture, personal blogging and the more widespread 'confessional culture' that characterizes television talk shows and reality television focused on the observation of everyday life" (94).  The subject matter of vlogs varies, but the idea of "confessional culture" exists throughout them.  Vlogs have become such a sensation because they are easy to produce, the viewer feels as if they are being spoken directly to, and vlogs encourage discussion.  The idea of easy to produce videos with the encouraged discussion entices viewers to create their own vlog as a response to a more popular blog, perhaps even becoming viral.

One vlog that I used to watch when I was younger was called "The Internet Killed Television".  The premise of this vlog is that it is an ordinary, young couple using Youtube to document their life.  After 4 years of vlogging every single day of their life, including their wedding proposal (their most viewed video and embedded below) and wedding, they still are able to get around 90,000 views per video.  After watching many of their videos, I would say that vlogs do not only rely on just the idea of confessional culture.  Vlogs have many aspects of voyeuristic films, especially with personal and daily vlogs, because the viewer is able to watch a strangers life from afar.  Confessional culture only goes as far to explain the content of vlogs, but using a voyeur lens allows us to really see that we are almost spying in on people's lives.  While the example that Snickars and Vonderau bring up (lonelygirl15) is a way to explain how content of a video allows a vlog to gain a lot of popularity, it is the fact that the viewer is watching another persons life.  While The Internet Killed Television is a vlog, it does not re-enforce the idea of confessional culture as much as some other vlogs.   The voyeur lens provides a reason to watch the videos.

The content of the vlogs is important to gain viewership, but voyeurism is the reason that people make vlogs.  It is the idea of peeping in on peoples lives that entices the viewer to continue their viewership.

Virtual Girlfriends in Real Life

Turkle's idea of a virtual world is more than just an escape for people from their daily lives.  She argues that people who spend time in worlds like WoW and second life form their identities online.  This online identity creation empowers these people to do more in the virtual world than they could ever do in real life.  She say "their virtual identities make them feel more like themselves than they do in real life" (159).

In an article by Daisuke Wakabayashi , men in Japan travel to a hotel with their virtual sweethearts on a romantic getaway using a Nintendo DS game called Love Plus+.  The idea of the virtual girlfriend evolves beyond the virtual realm; men are able to rent out hotel rooms for two at this resort, buy dinner for two, and remember certain dates.  Unlike in second life were the users exist in the physical realm, the patron of the hotel's girlfriends only exist on their Nintendo DS systems.  One of the users of Love Plus+ said "'There isn't a lot of romance in my life and this helps me cope with some of the loneliness'" (Wakabayashi).  The relationships formed in communities such as second life serve as an outlet for most users, creating the second life that most people dream of.  Love Plus+ offers a more realistic approach to the virtual world, because the virtual and physical world exist together.  The users of Love Plus+ are in a relationship that exists in real life, and the game requires the man to act if he were dating someone in real life. 

Love Plus is the future of the online community, blurring the line between the physical and virtual realm.  How people will create relationships in the future will evolve with technology, maybe one day computers will be datable.