This article is from WeChat public account: quanmeipai , author: Tencent media, drawing from the title:” the Truman Show “stills

Trumen Burbank, a “mediocre” middle-aged man.

I have been living in a small city called Harbour City (Seahaven) from a small age to a large city. Everyone lives exactly the same, father, wife, friends … everything is normal.

Until 30 years old, he wanted to leave Harbour City, but gradually found that life was full of weirdness. The dead father suddenly appeared, and the same people and cars came and went repeatedly every day on the road near his home, claiming to be a doctor And the wife who goes to work in the hospital every day is not a doctor … Chumen finally found out that everything was fake. Thousands of cameras are facing him every second in the past 30 years. Harbour City is a huge set, everyone around is an actor, and his life is a world called “Chumen “The reality show.

“He was born in front of the audience.”

—— He was born on the live broadcast.

This is the story of (Directed by Peter Weir, screenwriter by Andrew Niccol) , in just 103 minutes, this The movie involves a series of topics: People’s relationship with television and media; how giant companies control and plan our lives; how do people filter out their real lives in popular discourse … < / p>

When people talk about the many interesting topics involved in The World of Chumen, one topic is often overlooked-public self and private self. (The public vs. private self) . The film itself does not cut into the topic from the perspective of the audience watching the reality show, but reflects on the experience of the protagonist Chumen Burbank. At the end of the 1990s, this theme seemed irrelevant, but today, with the ins filter all over it, its importance is constantly growing.

The world of Chumen has been in the past two decades. Social media has emerged. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have divided people ’s daily lives. Live personal life has become a trend, and it is no longer what Chumen encountered Scam. In such an environment, if you look back at “The World of Chumen”, what are the “thinking fears” discoveries?

This article by all-media writer Tom Trott published on Medium shows you the metaphors of the world of Chumen twenty years ago, and what warnings did they issue?

Please answer “The World of Chumen”: Three warnings 20 years ago

The actors who best represent the imbalanced relationship between public life and personal privacy are the “world of Chumen”. In the show, Louis Coltrane as Marlon, is a good friend of Chumen since childhood. Chu Men regarded him as his closest partner and shared all his hopes and fears with him. but in fact,Marlon, who Chu thought he knew, didn’t exist. Just like the line that Christof, the producer and director of “The World of Chumen,” arranged for Marlon in the movie-

“I will never lie to you.”

The last thing I would have ever been to you.

The “catcher”: the perfect trap for social media

Chumen has been “captured” by everyone in his life (catfished) .

Catfish, originally intended for catfish, also refers to a person who uses a fake identity on social networking sites to deceive; it refers to using a fake online identity to deceive someone into a relationship.

He was deceived into a perfect trap, where everyone was an actor, but he played a vital lover, relative and friend in his life. For example, Chumen’s wife Meryl (actually an actor named Hannah Gill played by Laura Linney) , she never really fell in love with Chu Door, she’s just doing the job of a reality show actor. When Chu Men found out that she had crossed fingers in their wedding photo (Note: Westerners used this gesture to confess because of lying) , she only revealed her flaws.

“Wife” gesture in the world of Chumen

In 1998, such tragedies only occurred in “The World of Chumen” or those unlucky people who were deceived by the bureau. But in the online world in 2019, “The World of Chumen” is staged every day, and we even created a special vocabulary for it (catfish) , Documentaries and TV series.

“Net Red”: To you, she is cute?

In Chumen’s life, everyone’s role is carefully planned, just like those exquisite posts on Instagram. But the similarities between the two are much more than that: Marlon and Meryl, both at the request of the producer, promote the products they pretend to like, and they are living advertisements.

In 1998, this was a joke about ad placement (Of course now) , But in 2019, this behavior is no different from the influencers on social media. (influencers) . The company pays internet celebrities to use their products and share posts and videos about product experiences. These vivid advertisements make use of the fans’ love and trust for the influencers, and profit from the authenticity of the performance.

Marlon and Meryl are not only catchers (catfish) , but also influencers: Meryl promotes kitchen supplies and hot chocolate drinks; Marlon promotes beer. Of course, their audience is not Chumen, but audiences watching “The World of Chumen”.

Influencer, someone who has the ability to influence other people ’s purchasing decisions because of their authority, knowledge, status, or relationship with the audience, such as “carrying online influencers” on social media.

But for Internet celebrities on social media today, the difference is not obvious. We are not only their audience, but also their friends and fans, who rely on interactions with us to make a profit. In this case, we became Chumen, and Marlon and Meryl are working hard to sell the product to us.

The true feelings of Hannah, Louis, and other actors are not important because their public self is separate from their private self. (even if the distinction is deliberate ) , they are just actors, they can complete the work of playing Chumen’s wife and friends. Many people are aware of this now, but we still feel pain when we find ourselves deceived.

“UseHousehold portraits “:” Guess what you like “after playing for 20 years

The third warning about social media in “The World of Chumen” is “user portraits” (profiling) . In the digital age, it is achieved through continuous monitoring, data storage and analysis.

Profiling, “portrait” or “profile”, records and analyzes a person’s psychological and behavioral characteristics to assess or predict their ability in a certain field, or to help determine their category.

Wherever Chumen goes, his words and deeds are monitored and recorded to build a model of his behavior, and then press the map to provide him with what he wants. But this is just to make him comfortable in Harbour City, but it may not make him truly happy. The producer arranged for him to be Meryl’s wife, and his love at first sight was Lauren The dead father was resurrected, but what he really wanted to do was run away.

It’s like social media feeding us one post after another, videos, new features, trying to please us and staying, but what we really want to do is turn off the phone, or Delete account. The endless stream of new tricks is nothing more than temporary soothing to divert potential uneasiness. Now we are all Chumen, trapped in the harbor city built by data.

“The World of Chumen” shows a false world in which those in power use the seemingly real interpersonal relationships to give people the illusion and profit from it. Not only does it predict the many disadvantages of social media, it also tries to tell us how to escape.

Escape: Get Out”The World of Chumen”

“You will never have a camera in my head”

At the end of the movie, Chumen is about to leave Harbour City. Christof proposes a final agreement: Staying in Harbour City, Chumen will always be a star of everyone’s attention and live a carefree life forever; He must agree to share every moment in his life and be watched forever.

Does it sound familiar? It’s like Christof’s “User Agreement.”

Christof tells Chumen decisively that he will choose to stay, because he knows him better than anyone else, because he has been watching his life since Chumen was born, and constantly portraits him. In response, Chumen answered:

“You will never have a camera in my head.”

You never had a camera in my head

Similarly, when Facebook brought up a tragedy that happened seven years ago, we refused to believe that it understood our emotions; when Google recommended a restaurant that “guess you like” but we actually tried and did not like At the time, we refused to believe that it understood our taste; when Amazon recommended something that we had already left in the trash, we refused to believe that it understood our interest.

Because, even Chumen, who was surrounded by cameras from the moment he was born, has a private self in his heart that is different from the public self. Like all of us, he presents one version of himself in social interaction, carefully showing happiness and other positive emotions; while in private, he may have another version of himself, permeated with negative emotions. After all, social media is a stage and we always have different people.

The Chumen of “Ignorant” and the “I know”

Chumen is of course different from us: Chumen doesn’t know that his life is being watched, he doesn’t know that his friends and family are lying, he doesn’t know whether his world is for profit or evil Fun owners build and control.

But we know.

But we still choose to broadcast our lives. Unlike Chumen, we finally accepted Christof’s “User Agreement.” We have become adept at showing a public self that is very different from the private self, and we have gradually learned the essence of “establishing people”, although many of us still don’t realize it.

We will still be fooled, betrayed, and hurt online.

Twenty years ago, The World of Chumen warned us.

We don’t listen.

Original link: https://medium.com/framerated/how-the-truman -show-warned-us-about-social-media-before-it-was-invented-f19819f1c87a

This article is from WeChat public account: quanmeipai , author: Tencent media