Panopticism of Online Vigilantes

Online Vigilantes are on the rise inside many SNS (Social Networking Sites). In the last couple of days reports of a CCTV filmed woman in the UK depositing a family cat inside a wheelie bin has gone viral, and now a similar report of a young girl purportedly throwing puppies into a lake has arisen.

This type of vigilantism is nothing new, for ages (historically) society has condoned a kind of mob rule. If enough members of the group rally together, to decide something is wrong or right, it will become law. Since the 1950's, advertising has relied on focus groups to decide how to market a product, and this reliance on focus group has become increasingly out of control, as proven in the recent farce of an election in Australia.

This panopticism is increasingly demonstrated online. Social Networks are self regulating, and more and more individuals in any network are acting as the watched, when they themselves are busy watching others.

In the case of the binned cat, vigilantism has led to a myriad of viral off shoots. Once the individual was outed, the mob seemed satisfied with the punishment of public humiliation.

The more recent case in the Balkans, has highlighted a new set of ethical problems. The video was posted (supposedly) by the girls sibling, with an explanation that the puppies were stray and needed to be put down else they would die. This act is probably relatively common place. Certainly not humane, but culturally sound. The online backlash highlights the contiunuing existence of cultural and geographical borders within the global web.

Food for thought

The rise and fall (perhaps) of the mp3?

Recently it was reported that sales of the Apple iPod have fallen for the first time since 2006. Whilst this does not spell doom for Apple itself (popularity of newer devices such as the iPad and iPhone have prevented this), it does bring in to question the longevity of downloadable digital music. Audiophiles have long lamented the lack of sound quality found in an mpeg standard, and the recent rise in popularity of Vinyl sales suggests that the experience of music will continue to outweigh the convenience.
In the visual sphere, virtual galleries have never pretended to succeed their offline parentage, yet digital music formats have affected the economy of music massively. Record companies had looked at iTunes as the benchmark in revolutionising music revenue (through micro-payment), and now in its possible decline, they must reconsider what the future of music revenue will be.
I don't think it is quite time to nix the idea of micro-payments, rather it may be that by expanding micro-payment beyond a locked in system such as iTunes (which is reliant on the built in technological obsolescence of hardware), to a wider subscription based service, allowing niche collections to spring up, managed by relevant curators.

Food for thought..