Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

One-third of American teens now own an iPod. A great quote from Jim Taylor, of the group that directed the study: "Teen life has become a theatrical, self-directed media production."

I'll say. All that handwaving and face-pulling and teeth-bleaching and crotch-grooming ... My own way of putting it is that "kids today behave like the videojockeys of their own MTV show," or else "kids today aspire to be Photshopped media images of themselves."

Speaking of which, check out Katie, who has some tips for the boys. She's as mannered, "on," and full of attention-grabbing tics as Rachael Ray. Any hunches about Katie? Is she just a sassy youngster perpetrating some YouTube mischief? Is she a fabrication of some newfangled cyber-sort, something along the lines of LonelyGirl15? Or have we already transcended that stage and arrived at the point where real-life young women have become their own cyber-fabrications?

Best,

Michael

Ugh, she smokes, she can just speak to the hand 'cause the ears ain't listening.
So Katie, don't let the door hit you in the ass...see ya wouldn't want to be ya.

Posted by: ivan on December 14, 2006 7:59 PM

Katie certainly isn't just /a/ sassy youngster but it's possible she's part of a small team of them. If the production values alone didn't tell you it's a group effort, check the end credits - there's at least 4 people credited including a "producer" and a named production company. But Katie isn't all that attractive or well-written, so I suspect it's a small group of friends doing some resume padding and building up their portfolios.

Posted by: Glen Raphael on December 14, 2006 8:06 PM

As Glen said, there's definitely a production team of some sort behind that.

As for Katie herself? Well, she's not that attractive. The camera angle is a typical of photographs and videos that are trying to disguise unattractive features, and the lighting is poor. She's not attractive as-is, but the combination of the above features makes me seem that it's worse than you would expect. She is, of course, more attractive than she is witty or intelligent. The writing on this thing is like a collection of 20 year old cliches -- At least Lonelygirl15 was sophisticated enough to pander to the YouTube audience's nerdy/geeky interests. The poor writing with lots of bar-hopping anecdotes, the smoking, and the attitude in general make Katie seem like she's very low class -- Which is probably true.

Posted by: Cineris on December 15, 2006 1:18 PM

re: Katie - I note that even though a lot of people viewed her video, relatively few bothered to vote and most of those rated it very low. This suggests that few take her seriously or care one way or another. Good enough for me.

Parenthetically, I remember when smoking was a sign of sophistication. Interesting that some like Cineris now associate it with being "low class."

RE: One-third of American teens now own an iPod.
Big deal. During the 50s and 60s, how many teens owned transistor radios or record players capable of playing 45s? Some people easily adapt to technological change. Other people blather pointlessly about the cultural significance of technological change.

Posted by: Alec on December 17, 2006 5:28 AM






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