Sunday, August 14, 2011

16 Days of Birthday, Day 8: Social Networking and Movies

I feel as if I have done way too many posts in this marathon which are just lists. So why not ramble on a bit today? After all, it's Sunday, there's a 'snow storm' headed our way, and I'm very tired. Therefore, rambling sounds good to me.

Anyone remember when I did this post back in May? It was all about the war between Avatar, the highest grossing movie of all time, and The Hurt Locker, the little war movie that 'robbed' it of the Best Picture Oscar. But that wasn't the only war I talked about in the post. There was a bit of hate going around for The Hurt Locker, which came in the form of Facebook 'like' pages. Which just goes to show that people now have a new platform to unleash their hate towards a movie on...even though it is so so wrong.

Okay, so you all know me. I'm a teenage girl, on the cusp of reaching the legal age, who spends a fair amount of her time lurking around the internet. The essential websites I can be found on most are: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr and of course, Blogger. Now these are all websites that don't deal with movies specifically, unlike IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes. In those places, it's perfectly natural to unleash a bit of negativity towards a movie, because those sites are based around people's opinions towards a movie. Blog sites are made for opinions too. Most of the movie-related comments on YouTube are spammers anyway, going on about "how great the van dropping off the bridge in a layer of dream" was in Legion. Twitter is pretty good to the movie lovers. Facebook is the one social networking site I have a real problem with.

Okay, maybe I just have a problem with those damn 'like' pages. Like, seriously? Why would you even 'like' a page just to say you hate a movie? Actually, why would you even go to all that effort to make a page like that? I think it's just ridiculous.

Let's go back to the Avatar and The Hurt Locker war on Facebook. I'll start by saying this: I like The Hurt Locker a lot more than Avatar. Yes, that probably makes me one of those 'film snobs' in the Facebook like page maker's eyes. But I do have to agree that Avatar did something great with film-making, and I guess the fact that it lost Best Picture to a tiny movie that most people hadn't even heard of was pretty...er...surprising. However, I can't imagine these Facebook page makers would even really care that much about the Oscars. They only cared in this situation because they'd never heard of The Hurt Locker (and probably hadn't seen it before the Oscars) and pretty much everyone on Earth has seen Avatar. There are a lot of people who love Avatar to death, and everything else just looked inferior compared to it. So no, its not a matter of 'hating' The Hurt Locker itself. Its a matter of resenting the fact that the cat got beaten by the mouse...or something like that.

On the flipside, Tumblr is a site which tends to over-love a movie. When I first got myself an account on there, it was back in July last year, which just so happens to be when Inception was first released. You think I was obsessed with this movie? You should have seen the people on Tumblr! First came the many memes...the 'Strutting Leo' (as pictured to the right), the 'squinting Leo', the 'we need to go deeper'...the list is just endless. Some of them were really funny, I admit, but they quickly got old. The next thing was the many 'ships'. Now, if you're not up with the 'hip kids on the internet' lingo, a 'ship' is a relationship between two characters in the same movie that is endorsed by a person on the internet. In Inception, there are a lot of characters, so there were plenty of 'ships' to go around. There were the generic ones like Cobb and Mal, Arthur and Ariadne, and Yusuf and his cats. But the ship that was endorsed the most was one between Arthur and Eames. Out of this ship came many gifs, many graphics involving the two and even rather graphic artworks. You know, I've never seen anything like the Arthur and Eames ship. It spiralled out of control, and it was a little bit embarassing after a while. Ever since then, not one movie can escape these kinds of 'ships'. But nothing, absolutely nothing can beat the amount of fandom that Inception got on Tumblr (except for maybe Harry Potter).

There have been plenty of other movies to get all of this fandom. The Social Network had the famous ship between Mark and Andrew. Along with that, you could pretty much watch the entire movie in gifs on there because every line was so quotable. X-Men: First Class has had a little ship between Erik and Raven, and a huge ship between Erik and Xavier. Plus, the Tumblr universe has gone mad on Michael Fassbender, mainly comparing him to a shark because of his rather big smile (it's the 'new thing' to be one of Fassy's teeth). One of the newest ships that has just rolled around is for a movie that hasn't even been released yet: The Avengers. Which lucky superheroes get a ship? Captain America and Iron Man. Which is weird, considering Iron Man is Howard Stark's son, who like, gave Cap his powers.

So I'm going to wrap this up now since it's snowing in Dannevirke properly for the first time in eight years and I'm too excited to form coherent sentences. Social networking has it's ups for the movie industry...people have the power to easily tell people what they like and dislike about a movie without being a critic. But most of the time, social networking is a place where people can either unleash their hate in an extremely unhealthy way, or obsess over a movie in an unhealthy way. Either way, I'll just stick to my blogging.

What do you think about the relationship between social networking and movies?

14 comments:

  1. I agree, social networking is very powerful. I also don't like Facebook that much, which explains why I don't have an account there. Twitter and WordPress are the only places I really talk about movies online, and at the moment I don't have interest in including any other social networking sites except the blogs I visit.

    Social networking started out as a handy way of communicating and sharing the love but too many people are using it as a tool for hatred and a weapon of fierce, inconsiderate opinion. I could rant all day about how much I hate Avatar, but no one would listen because you shouldn't rant about something without considering everyone's opinion. Don't be so one-sided. There are always going to be people who disagree with you so why spit in their faces and rant about how they're wrong? No one's right! No one's wrong! It's just opinion! And that's what so many people don't get when they go off on a time and energy wasting hate-fuelled rant. If you're gonna rant, do it properly, like you have, Stevee.

    I love ranting. I could do it all day (in fact, I'm probably doing it right now), but if and when I do rant, I don't do it in a manner that alienates a disagreeing reader. I write it so that, hey, I have my own opinion but I'm not shutting you out, you're welcome to disagree.

    And that's where so many people go wrong when they rant. That's how social networking can be dangerous, and that's why I stay away from people who rant about things without considering the other person's opinion, like that Avatar Facebook page. Opinion is one of the most dangerous privileges humanity has, and so few people use it wisely.

    End of rant. :)

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  2. God people in Tumblr must learn to get over films. I do enjoy it, and sometimes just cannot resist a picture or gif or photoset, but seriously stop! I just hope it's a phase, and eventually people will chill.
    Oooh snow! I've never seen snow...I live in India right in the middle of like the monsoon region.

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  3. Tumblr people can be quite obsessive, yes - but you can't say a word about it there, haha! Though obviously, it's not everyone - just the fact that you're there and I'm there - shows that there are some of non-crazy fans on tumblr. But I get it, it can be pretty asphyxiating sometimes, particularly with fandoms that idolize people, that's what disturbs the most. But like Nikhat says, there are so many great pictures and gifs there, and people with great taste, and a genuine and balanced love for film and knowledge too.

    And I agree about facebook too, I'm always thinking why do I still have a profile. I just can't do what most people do there - giving their shallow opinions, changing they're facebook status to whatever meaningless thought all the time, and sharing photos of cookies or something. For that I have blogger, twitter and tumblr. Facebook is to... do something else, that I still don't quite get, but okay.

    And I agree with the hate thing too, like why would you even research something you don't like, it makes no sense.

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  4. I hate Tumblr, but we're being forced to use it for our course :( Bloody new media...

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  5. Tyler - Facebook is quite helpful when you're at high school, because it you can keep up with what's going on. But I'm over all the hate on that site. It's ridiculous.
    Yes you are right...you should always rant with everyone else in mind. That's why there's so much hate in the world these days, because nobody likes to consider anyone else. Which I fucking hate.
    Your small rant was very interesting though. You seem to have hit the nail on the head!

    Nikhat - I like the gifs and photosets on there...but yeah, they really need to learn to get over a film!

    Maria Sofia - No, I'm hoping that there aren't any serious Tumblr people reading this...they'd probably kill me!
    Gosh, I hate people on Facebook with their pointless statuses. I really don't get why people think that other people care.
    The hate thing is horrible!

    Ruth - Poor you!

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  6. I would love some snow now...
    But to your post: I agree that facebook is helpful while being at high school, and also for being in contact with your best friends (which is like, 5 persons, maybe), but it has gone out of control. The whole who-has-the-most-friends thing, or just something like: I wrote on facebook that my dog had eaten my chocolate. I wrote it in Danish. My grandma, an American, read it and called me to ask why I'm feeding my dog chocolate - don't I know it's poison for dogs? And she meant it! She was mad at me - while I was mad at my dog, because she stole the chocolate.
    I'm not posting anything personal on facebook again, ever.

    Blogger is the best social network, I think...

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  7. Oh, PS: My grandma doesn't understand Danish. She just read the name of my dog and the word "chocolate".

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  8. You're right, I find people tend to be rather inconsiderate and narrow minded when it comes to discussing films on social network sites.

    Often it's impossible to have a proper argument as they are so convinced they are right anyway...

    Anyway, I actually wasn't very impressed by The Hurt Locker, and I didn't think it deserved Best Picture. I'm not an Avatar fan at all, but I think that it probably deserved the award more.

    Great post, I like rants a lot!

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  9. Lime(tte) - Yeah, Facebook is helpful, but most of the time, it's a pain in the ass. That story sounds pretty bad, though! And yes, Blogger is the best social network.

    Jack - I hate inconsiderate people, which is why I have problems with these social networking sites. And yeah, it's impossible to have a proper argument.
    I loved The Hurt Locker, but I still don't think it should have won. Avatar didn't either...I'm more of an Inglourious Basterds fan, but then again, that was never gonna win!

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  10. Didn't know you're on tumblr. What's your link? Mine is http://emma-farley.tumblr.com/

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  11. filmgeek - My link is http://filmjunkie25.tumblr.com

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You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.

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