Elizabeth’s Introduction to the Digital Age

The pictures bombard our everyday lives. 

 Britney Spears driving her car. Britney Spears shopping in Los Angeles. Britney Spears eating dinner with her father. Britney Spears entering a dance studio. Britney Spears walking on the sidewalk with her mother.

No one can escape the mundane details of this pop star’s everyday life.

In his book, Smart Mobs, Howard Rheingold explains this social phenomenon and provides examples of how smart mobs have evolved; the effectiveness of smart mobs; and the benefits and perils of this group of citizens. While examining his examples, I couldn’t help but feel that he’d neglected to include an extremely intrusive, technologically sophisticated smart mob—the paparazzi.

With the advent of technology and the accessibility of online communication, smart mobs are more empowered than ever. “The same convergence of technologies that opens new vistas of communication also makes possible a universal surveillance economy and empowers the bloodthirsty as well as the altruistic” (p. XVIII).

If there’s one profession that almost solely relies on the information embedded in text messages, it’s photographers. Their income depends on the frequency and reliability of this form of communication. Depending on what their “sources” tell them in the body of a message, these individuals will position themselves outside of restaurants, clubs, grocery stores, Starbucks, and airports.

The hordes of photographers are in competition with one other. They’re pushing each other out of the way in order to capture the perfect shot. The celebrity is the prize. With the exception of acting rationally, photographers perfectly depict the Game Theory, which Rheingold discusses. “Game theory is based on several assumptions: that the players are in conflict, that they must take action, that the result of the action will determine which player wins according to definite rules, and that all players are expected to act “rationally” by choosing the strategy that will maximize their gain regardless of the consequences to others” (p. 41).

The prize for these coveted pictures is nothing to scoff at. According to Jossip.com, Us Weekly and People are willing to pay over $100,000 for pictures of Kate Hudson and Owen Wilson holding hands in Miami. According to Thomas Hobbes, “Humans are so competitive that the only way we can cooperate is for a more powerful competitor to impose a truce” (p. 34).

Hence the wheeling and dealing that these photogs attempt to do with celebrity friends and family. Photographers have given their phone numbers to close friends of the couple in hopes that they’ll tip them off to the whereabouts of Hollywood’s hottest commodity. However, the members of this smart mob must be discerning when intercepting text messages from their trusted “sources.” Smart mobs can be pitted against smart mobs—inaccurate text messages can also be disseminated to deter these bloodhounds from following the every step of this new couple.

As John Battelle discussed in his book, The Search, these same photographers that sell their pictures to tabloid magazines also utilize the infamous search to track down other outlets interested in purchasing their goods. MrPaparazzi.com provides up-to-the-minute text messages with the latest celebrity news. According to their Web site, you can join the Mr. Paparazzi celeb tracker and “you’ll get regular text alerts on the whereabouts of the hottest celebrities.”

The most recent example of how paparazzi can negatively impact those subjects who they are covering involves an individual who I referred to earlier on—Britney Spears. The trouble singer’s sad downward spiral was discussed on evening news programs and newspapers alike. The mobs which captured the every detail of this girl’s life were able to do so because of text messages they’d received from Sam Lufti, a Spears friend. According to Maxim magazine, “There’s one paparazzi agency that’s emerged as having the inside track on Britney all the time – they’re the ones who know where she is, where she’s going… It’s called X17. “One of the owners of X17 told me that last year she began getting messages from lots of people with funny names; we know that Sam, in the past, has used a lot of pseudonyms. “After that she said one day out of the blue, Sam Lutfi called and introduced himself by name, then he started calling more and more often. “By the time I was with the paparazzi, they were sitting there getting text messages from him at regular intervals telling them where she was, where she was gonna go.”

If we look at old Hollywood, we rarely see pictures of make-up-less Marilyn Monroe exiting her boyfriend’s home. We aren’t flooded with images of a drunk Frank Sinatra slouched over a blond bombshell at a New York club. Why not? Is it because photographers were only informed of public photo opportunities? How has this access to celebrity lives impacted our perception of reality? How has this “smart” mob repositioned our priorities as a society?