We live in an era where our day to day existence is almost exclusively defined by rapidly advancing, trending technology. We project our lives on to social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Youtube, and more. When we feel there is nothing exciting in our lives to project, we exaggerate the mundane and offer it to the world as though it were a handful of gold. Our self-worth is determined by numbers. The number of followers we acquire on Twitter, the number of friends we have on Facebook, the number of hits we get on YouTube. The higher those numbers, the more attention we're garnering for our online image - and that's essentially the point of it all, isn't it?

The Internet is made up of people who watch and are watched. It's a power struggle between spectacle and voyeurism and our narcissistic tendencies fuel them both.

For Toronto writer and social critic Hal Niedzvecki, there is a term for this phenomenon: 'peep culture'. According to Hal, the transition from pop culture to 'peep' culture is when personal privacy is traded for mass notoriety. Inspired by his 2009 book titled The Peep Diaries, Hal is featured in a CBC documentary called Peep Culture produced and directed by filmmakers Sally Blake and Jeannette Loakman of Chocolate Box Entertainment.

This is no ordinary documentary, either. While informative and thought provoking, an in-depth look at the extremities of Internet celebrity, Hal decides that observation is not enough - for an otherwise average, commonplace guy who doesn't have a cell phone, he needed the full effect of online living.  So what does that entail? Broadcasting his life for all the world to see. For a period of three weeks web cams are set up all around his house filming his every move from sleeping, to eating, to playing with his five year-old daughter, all streamed live on the Internet.  

WOMAN.ca sat down with Hal to discuss the film's inspiration, process, and final outcome.

What prompted the idea for the book Peep Diaries?  
I was - and still am - a fiction writer.  I started Broken Pencil magazine, which is more underground fiction writing, and Peep Diaries took on life of its own. I was thinking about what  certain 'indie' words mean - "underground", "alternative", and that's when I wrote my first non-fiction book We Want Some Too: Underground Desire and the Reinvention of Mass Culture, which explores the relationship between pop culture and individuality.  I wrote another book called "Hello, I'm Special", that book discusses the conform to rebellion - what's 'cool' and 'underground' if everyone  wants both? This was before all the rage of Facebook, blogging, Twitter, etc. I felt like the predictions of that book were coming true. There was a shift in culture, "peep" entertainment, it was us watching each other and ourselves. I thought that was the best idea for a book, all these things are connected an have a profound effect on individuality.

What do you expect the reception to be for Peep Culture compared to your book?   
The response to the book garnered bigger reaction than imagined, so I'm hoping that the people who haven't heard of the book will see the documentary and question "why?" when it comes to social media and deepen their understanding of where we're going.

How long was the whole filming process?
It was about three months of filming and eight months of tying up loose ends. The webcam was on for about three weeks. We had ambitions to prolong that experiment but it didn't end up happening. I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, it got to be to too much.

Were you reluctant to participate in the film?
Yes, it was a real battle , the first scene of the film shows me deliberating over the contract I had to sign. I was definitely reluctant all the way along, there were a few times Sally had to scold me for not having the camera on and going upstairs to sleep with my wife.  I guess I  envisioned observing peep culture rather than being an active participant in it. 

How did the 24/7 broadcast affect your family life?
Well, you can see in the documentary, my wife's reaction to it is very clear right from the start. They tried to get into it and be part of it, but she was very reluctant. It was an intense, you see at times that I'm playing with my daughter on camera and I started to feel like I was using my kid as a prop. I've written about people who explot their kids so I had mixed feelings about that. You can't have a normal family life and broadcast it 24/7, you just can't; turning yourself into an entertainment product is the antithesis of living a compassionate nomal every day life

What were your expectations of the experiment and how did they compare to the results?
I thought I would hate it and was surprised that I actually liked it. You find yourself  constantly checking who is watching, who is logging on, etc.  You're disappointed when you dont get the reception you expect. It's a constant thrill, you get constant feedback. and it stimulates pleasure in your brain whether the viewers say you're shit or you're awesome. I wanted as many people watching as possible, the mentality was 'How much can i do? What can I do that will keep me on camera?'

How quickly does a sense of obligation to entertain kick in?
Right away. Right away you feel pressured to do something. I started feeling suffocated, it was this claustrophobic paranoia all the time. I didn't have the time frame I anticipated, it took much longer to get something going, so there was high pressure.  I felt like I started hamming it up all the time. There were some scenes that didn't make the final cut, like hanging out with friends in my basement. I would say it started out performative but mellowed out a bit, once I found a balance I started enjoying it.

You weren't "real" enough for your reality TV audition. How much reality is there in reality TV now that you've experienced it firsthand?
None. It's 100% fabricated, they know what they want right before the casting, they have stereotypes planned out already. People arrive at castings trying to figure out what kind of stereotypes they can be, they're trying to be pretend versions of themselves.

What do you think the relationship is between spectacle and voyeurism? The need to be watched vs. the need to watch?
People come at it feeling lonely, they have a problem and want to be noticed, or they want the celebrity status. The more friends, the more community. You have to twist yourself to make more spectacle - if I make a post about making dinner or a post about how I'm going to get breast enhancements, which one will get the most attention? The 'Can Cam' was the camera watching me in the bathroom, and that's what got people talking the most, that was the real moment of spectacle. It was silly, but it was actually the least awkward point of the experiment because all I had to do was go to the bathroom and do what anyone does. What was awkward was when I was playing with my  kid, wondering 'Who's watching this? What am I trying to show them?' People camp out for spectacle, they're drawn to that balance of real yet real people are going to provide you with spectacle.  

Once it was over, did you completely disconnect? Do you miss any part of it?
I have Facebook and Twitter but not much personal material. It's all professional. I made   comment on Facebook about Nutella, how there's a woman suing the company claiming that the product is falsely advertised as healthy and I got instant feedback. Meanwhile, if I post the cover of my short stories, I get no response

Coming from the perspective of a normal, commonplace guy, did you have any mishaps/blunders in the transition of going online? The whole thing was one big mishap. You can't soft pedal it. You have to be all in to do it,  which is not a blunder but source of constant tension. You can't be a reluctant blogger, it's all or nothing. I was blogging at one point about whether or not we should have another kid.  It's 100% public material and revealing your personal information is an adjustment.

What is the overall message behind Peep Culture?
The message is not "don't do this stuff", the idea is to understand why you're doing it and what you're doing and then do what you want. Who are you broadcasting to? What are the implications? What happens? If you completely understand the implications of technology, you'll pay the price of becoming a brand, but go for it. 


The documentary can be seen on CBC Wednesday February 16th at 10:00 pm EST. Hal is currently the fiction editor at Broken Pencil magazine and is working on a book of short stories, more information on Hal's 'Peep Diaries' and other publications can be found here.

Image from MorgueFile

Courtney Gilmour
		About the author:
		Courtney is a published writer, stand-up comic, and shameless Internet enthusiast. She holds a double bachelors degree in English Literature and Communication Media Studies, specializing in semiotic theory, however she doesn't get Shakespeare and has never won a game of Scrabble. Currently she lives in Toronto and works as a writer for WOMAN.CA.
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