It’s been 10 years since the hit movie, The Truman Show, ripped its way through box offices throughout the country, causing people to wonder if anything like that were possible.
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.
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