© inmagine
The script writers of this movie, like so many keen observers of societal trends, have predicted future events with amazing accuracy; the premise of The Truman Show is alive and thriving throughout the United States.
It's alive and well on so-called reality TV and on the internet.
The Truman Show story is that of an enterprising, maniacal television producer, who adopted Truman after his mother died in childbirth, and televised every moment of his life 24/7 beginning with his birth.
I always wondered if that meant there was a potty-cam in addition to the hundreds of cameras that follow Truman's every move. Of all of our activities, I would put that at the top of the 'privacy' list.
Today's teens (and some adults) have taken the thread of the idea to the max, and become their own vid-cam writers, actors, directors, producers and distributors, sending out every aspect of their lives over the internet to be seen by all.
They, too, can expose every aspect of their lives to public scrutiny from birth to death, because their parents captured everything about them starting with photos of pregnant mom to dad, armed with a video camera in the delivery room.
I've also wondered just how it affects children to actually see the pain their mothers went through giving birth to them.
It's one thing to hear about mom's delivery room adventure; it's quite another to actually see it with nothing left to the imagination.
For the normally adjusted person, it's just another one of life's moments. For the maladjusted or the mentally ill it could become the focus of matriarchal hating, or be turned inward into self-loathing.
Streaming death live
From birth to death they expose themselves to the bright lights of the video camera and broadcast it to any and all who want to see, and there are plenty of internet sites for them to do it.
The most popular are My Space and Facebook, but it doesn't have to stop there, because anyone can get his own Web site or start up a blog.
So it was with 19-year-old Broward College (Florida) student Abraham Biggs, who suffered from manic depression, committed suicide in the glaring light of his video camera and streamed it live.
Biggs was not the first, nor will he be the last to Webcast his own demise.
Watching the live stream, the insensitive urged him on while others pleaded with him to stop. The sane, logical thinkers among them notified the police, who contacted the Web site and tracked Biggs down.
By the time they arrived it was too late, and their discovery of Biggs' body was also steamed live.
Seeing and being seen rules
So it is with today's teens that being seen is the ultimate goal.
"If it's not recorded or documented then it doesn't even seem worthwhile," said Montana Miller, assistant professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.
"For today's generation it might seem, 'What's the point of doing it if everyone isn't going to see it?'" she added.
She also said that from a sociological point of view, Biggs' very public suicide wasn't all that shocking in view of how today's teens chronicle every aspect of their lives on Web sites.
Additionally, Miller likened Biggs' suicide to other public suicides, such as jumping from a bridge, freeway overpass or rooftop.
This generation of "must be seen" children, who were raised by parents who were part of the "you can-do-no-wrong and don't have to accomplish anything to be rewarded" generation, are even worse off than their "I'm terrific" and "I don't have to prove anything to succeed" parents.
I know people who judged their worth by how many Christmas or birthday cards they received in the mail, or how many times a day their phones rang. After that it was how many answering machine messages that had when they got home. That morphed into the number of emails are in their inboxes.
All really bad measuring sticks of one's worth as a human being.
Today, it's see and be seen as often as possible on as many Web sites as possible.
Is this their version of 15 minutes of fame, or how they measure their worth?
If it's a measure of self-worth, and if Miller is correct that they think they're nobody unless the world sees them online, then I feel extremely sorry for these young people.
What a horrid way to live. I can't imagine what the next dehumanizing thing we will do to validate ourselves.
I just had a horrid thought. What if the next phase in our backwards development is to establish people zoos where those who choose to can be view live doing all the things that used to make us uniquely human?
Comment: And what if the parents took the time and put the effort to really look at their children and actually See them and accept them as who they are? Wouldn't that make all the need for outside validation diminish? What if the parents worked on accomplishing this for themselves first? Just a thought...