Imagine a world in which a convocation of observers made your every decision — from what you eat to what job you hold to who you date. Well, there’s a cadre of people out there who are currently living in such a state, and they’re not players in some lost Orwellian drama. No, they’re members of a burgeoning social media trend: Crowd sourcing your life.Over the past few months, several projects have emerged that play upon the theme of relinquishing control of one’s life as a form of entertainment: From amateur productions to professionally produced web shows. Each is fascinating in its own right — an intimate glimpse into someone’s life that you as a viewer can actively participate in.
Living in the public eye is nothing new when it comes to web trends. Folks like Justin Kan — of Justin.tv () — have been launching projects like this for several years, and reality shows have carved out a sizable niche in the realm of TV programming.
Still, the added element of strapping on the puppet strings and turning over one’s life to the masses makes this trend different from the Jennie Cams of old.
So why the proliferation of projects that tap into the ethos of the masses in order to create entertainment? “We are naturally inclined to like the idea of living someone else’s life or controlling someone else’s life or physically being inside of someone else’s body,” says Jamie Wilkinson of Know Your Meme. “That even goes back to the spookiness of ventriloquism. That theme of control and possession is a really common storytelling trope that touches on human nature.”
Also, the accessibility of the necessary technology has aided in the spread of average people becoming “Internet () famous.” Still, novelty is always an issue when you’re aiming to cut through the clutter and emerge as a legitimate addition to the viral firmament.
“Things like that are interesting only when they’re unique,” says Justin Kan. “It’s becoming a lot easier to produce this content. For us, we had to produce [on] this 25-pound broadcasting device [to film Justin.tv]. Now we’re releasing an app that will broadcast from your iPhone () or Android (). Now more people are able to do this. I think there’s going to be a trend of more people creating video mobiley, on the go.”
We’ve taken a look at four instances of crowd sourcing one’s life — all of which launched around the same time, but include their own set of hardships and rewards. We’ve included glimpses into each project below, demonstrating the stresses and oddities inherent in handing over the reins to the world wide web.
1. David on Demand
The 29-year-old recruiter agreed to don a pair of glasses complete with webcam, and follow the commands of his Twitter follows via @davidondemand for a full six days, during which he posted video of the proceedings to his website.
The most challenging task? “Have you seen my tattoo? That was a trying challenge,” Perez says. The recruiter got a tat of the Twitter Fail Whale at the behest of his followers. “In all seriousness though, there were more than 3.5 million Tweets coming in through @davidondemand, so it was challenging to keep up. I ended up completing about 20,000 requests. I also drank enough pink wine to kill a small horse.”
Despite the permanent reminder of the whole experiment now scorched into his arm (see the video above), Perez found the experience to be less trying and more eye-opening: “The Internet –- as I affectionately call all the people following the project –- surprisingly treated me wonderfully,” he says. “I went into this guided by the assumption that they would be my tormentors. Quite the opposite. They tweeted me water, a massage, naps, food and a chance to visit the seminars — which was why I was in Cannes…. I am continually floored at how the Internet personified itself. It’s amazing to me that something so deceptively cold could turn itself into a very real and human thing.”
Of course, the whole project was not just about personal discovery — it also served as a form of advertising for Perez’s company (he completed tasks during the conference itself). The idea of hitching one’s wagon to a viral trend is becoming more and more commonplace these days (see: The Old Spice Guy, etc), and Perez sees real promise in such endeavors.
“Crowd sourcing programs like David on Demand are effective for brands because they let people actually interact with brands,” he says. “People are starting to demand more spontaneous, real-time relationships with brands and these types of projects do just that. I think the world also likes being ‘talked to’ and not ‘talked at.’”
2. Dan 3.0
This past August, Brown partnered with Internet television network Revision3 to launch a new web show called Dan 3.0, during which the 20-year-old (yup, he’s only 20) plans to record a daily log of his life for one year, the path of which will be left up to the whims of his followers. Revision3 fashioned a “decision engine” for the project, which allows viewers to submit tasks for Brown to execute.
So where did this idea come from? Back in January, Brown found himself in a kind of limbo when it came to novel vlogging ideas. It was 2 a.m. and he was in his customary blogger’s uniform — half-naked in a Snuggie — when he came upon a documentary called Us Now, which detailed the state of the Internet, looked to its future, and the collaborative nature of the online space.
Struck by this concept, Brown decided to follow suit, launching a web show where he would take suggestions from viewers on how to live his life. “The more control you can give to communities, the better,” he said, explaining the prudence behind letting a gaggle of strangers run the show.
Brown didn’t have that many rules in place when it came to what he was willing to do. “There are a few hard and fast rules,” he says. “1). Can’t change my girlfriend, 2). I’m not going to change my family, 3). They can’t change where I live permanently. 4). I’m not going to break any laws, 5). I’m not going to do anything that has a significant impact on others. We decided that I have veto power, but the agreement is, obviously, if I veto something that the viewers don’t think should be vetoed, I lose credibility.”
“We wanted to show the viewers that I am committed to this,” he says. “It’s not just a fleeting thing. It’s not just a cute little idea. I really am seriously excited about this and it’s a project that I consider to be deeply personal.”
Since the project launched this summer, Brown has hit a few bumps in the road. At one point, he disappeared for a stretch of time, which raised concern and ire among his followers (see above), and he doesn’t exactly update daily. Still, he’s been faithfully documenting of late and has even scored advertisers like Netflix and GoDaddy.
The videos that Brown has been creating, though rather lengthy in web terms, have been captivating. Yes, there’s a hefty amount of complaining and angst in the first few videos but Brown ultimately manages to present a unique coming-of-age narrative — moving into his own place, visiting his girlfriend and muddling through the (perhaps overly ambitious) project that he has locked himself into for an entire year.
Brown doesn’t hide the fact that creating a daily web show is a huge undertaking and that a less-than-polished aesthetic makes the show worth watching. It’s more honest than your average reality show.
3. Dating Brian
“Even negative press is good press. [My capris] became like a talking point for the project,” Brian told me, after I apologized for the ill-fated crack once the project had wrapped. “It became one of the main talking points, and my [fellow] interns and I laughed about it constantly. There were drawings made of it in the office. Some guy drew a mood chart between sad to happy, and it would show different stages of how far up my pants would be rolled. Sad would be all the way down.”
His pants weren’t the only thing that went viral; the concept of a month of crowd sourced dating spread across the web post haste — which was a good thing for Moore, considering it was part of a project to be completed during his internship at ad agency BBH. The goal of the project? Make something — anything — famous. Needless to say, Moore and his cohorts succeeded.
Still, it wasn’t all about fame for Moore. “I had been in a long relationship that had ended about just over a year ago now,” he says. “So I was single, I had just come to New York. So I thought, why not do something crazy like that?”
“It started as a joke,” he says. “I was with a couple of friends, a couple of my fellow interns, over brunch one day, and I think I actually tweeted it: ‘What if I crowd sourced my dating life?’ Like reality show meets Web 2.0, meets dating, meets performance art, meets me.”
Although Moore — like Brown — got sidetracked a few times during the experiment (he didn’t manage to make a video for every date), he was successful in the end. Still, it was taxing to go on dates, hold down his internship and create videos of every single one of his outings. “If you’re going to be doing something almost reality show-like, and there are people’s integrities on the line, get somebody in between you and that person,” Moore recommends for would-be life bloggers.
“I did everything. I did all the video. I did all the web — the design of everything,” he says. “If it’s going to be something so personal like that, get someone in between that. Because I don’t want to say anything bad about any of my dates or anything like that. You might need to be a bigger a**hole than me to make it more interesting, to keep the drama going — because I just don’t like drama too much.”
And that’s the element that made this experiment so genuine: It could have been a hell of a lot bigger. Moore was even approached by VH1 and MTV, but he preferred to keep the project going on his own terms. “I wanted to keep it as real as possible,” he says. “Because, sure, it’s online, I’m in this internship and everything like that, but behind it all, I’m actually myself. I mean, I wasn’t being anyone different than who I am. Because I know how reality shows are — I wanted to distance myself as far from that personally and the project as a whole as I possibly could.”
Although Moore didn’t actually find love during this endeavor, he did take a lot away from the experience. “The first question that people ask me is: What was the worst date? But there really wasn’t one,” he says. “I got to see all these different parts of New York that I had never seen before and meet a lot of interesting people.”
Moore would even do the whole thing all over again — for someone else, that is. If you’re looking to have a slew of digital matchmakers at your beck and call, hit Moore up.
4. ControlTV
The show, which launched on October 6 and will run for six weeks, follows Tristan on his quest for self-improvement… at the hands of the voting public. Tristan’s life is live streamed 24/7 on the ControlTV website and then edited into 3-minute webisodes, which run on the site and across co-producer DBG’s content network of 2,600+ sites. Viewers can sign up to be informed of polls that will sway Tristan’s life, and have the opportunity to vote throughout the day on his decisions.
Before the show was even cast, we chatted with executive producer Seth Green about the goal of this project. “This is not Aldous Huxley, this is not Animal Farm. This is a lighthearted premise and we are trusting the audience not to tread dark,” he told us. “It’s comedic, but we want to offer people the opportunity to help this guy improve his life. Find a job, find a girlfriend, figure out who he is in the world and we’re looking for people to offer their opinions and help him.”
So far, episodes have centered around finding a personal trainer, a girlfriend (via Skype () conversations with various girls) and a profession (perhaps something in the music business). Tristan, like Dan et al., certainly has his moments of anguish, but the show mostly presents the whole thing as a positive experience. Still, it is a much slicker production — what with the blatant product placements for Snickers and Ford. (Tristan eats a Snickers after every workout, like some kind of highly caloric granola bar.)
The fact that there’s actually a super polished EdTv-esque show out there only contributes to the idea that projects of this nature are gaining traction. “It’s relevant in this moment in time because we as a culture have become judge, jury and executioner of our fellow man in a really interesting way,” says Green. “If you look at the way pop culture has extended and the way the tabloid culture has been [taking] life, people are very interested in the public and private comings and goings of any celebrities and they take on a collective point of view… There’s an interest in making someone do what you want and holding them accountable for what the public feels are the moral standards. So this kind of concept is really relevant in my opinion — in that sense, people are very interested in having some control over another person. Having their opinion be rewarded. Having their perspective and their insight being the law, in a way.”
“We’re just really excited to see what happens,” he says. “This is one of those moments where you stand on the precipice and you hope for the best, but we really just don’t know. And that’s kind of what’s so exciting about it. We have no idea how the audience is going to react to this guy. We have no idea how much they’re actively going to take an interest in making his life better. And we have no idea — within reason, because we’ll have some degree of control of how much this guy is tortured or not — we just don’t know what he’s going to take away from this experience and neither does the guy. And that to me is really exciting.”
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