Lonelygirl15: What's the big deal?
Recently in Wired magazine, I read a cover article entitled, Youtube Grows Up. A picture of an attractive brunette and the subtitle, Lonelygirl15, Web tv, & the end of tv advertising. So who is this Lonelygirl15 and why is she on the cover of Wired magazine?
First I will explain the new phenomenon of "video blogging." Similar to traditional blogging, users create entries a few times per week. Typically, these do not follow any sort of greater scheme, such as my blog following technological information systems, these blogs are simply journals of people's lives. Lonelygirl15 seems to have all the signs pointing to simply a high school age girl posting about her life. Surprisingly, her average post was receiving roughly 50,000 views. There are many speculative reasons why this is true, but I shan't divulge them as this is a management class, not psychology. Next, as "bree" (actor Jessica Rose's persona) begins to divulge her feelings on camera, her views increase dramatically. What these viewers don't know is that bree is actually part of an experiment by a man named Mesh Flinders. So why all the buzz?
For a medium that didn't exist only years ago, people have placed a lot of faith in available resources. Often, people read blogs as though they are the news, but let's be honest, bloggers do not undergo the same fact-checking as true media outlets. Again, referring back to Cisco's commercial, people perceive things such as Youtube as "the human network." This conjures up images of an entirely peer-run network where each and every person is just another average Joe trying to be noticed. In this way, bree's journal was a personal glimpse into the life of a cute high school girl. Just as people do with any character, they were endeared to her and felt a connection with her. Then they found out it was a ploy.
Flinder's has a great idea. Unfortunately for him, he was found out. Once people realized they had been duped, they were indignant and Lonelygirl15's popularity has sunk. But what have we gained from this? This remains debatable, but let's look at Google's recent acquisition of Youtube and put it into context. Why would Google put 1.9 billion dollars into Youtube? Here we have a prime example. Market. By making the right story with the right actor, suddenly you have upwards of 50,000 people all coming to the same place. By making the right types of clips, we're talking about a whole new "prime time tv"-esque slot.
Of course a big question is "Will people continue watching once commercialization enters the scene?" When it becomes apparent that what people are watching is a commercial enterprise, will it still have the same appeal? Part of the intrigue behind Lonleygirl15 was that it seemed real. The backlash came as a result of the discovery that it was in fact a production. So commercial enterprises should tread lightly here. There is most certainly a market, but if they dive in too brashly, they may incite wariness into their potential market base.
So it looks like we'll be seeing more of this. Flinders has proven that by creating the right image, people will be enamored. The trick is just going to be keeping the commercial out of it. Until then, enjoy!
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