A Critical Ethnography of Social Media: Social Media “Kids” Say the Darndest Things

 

One of the great absurdist joys—and I do love the absurdism of human life--of doing ethnography of social media is seeing and hearing what social media “kids" say. A recent ethnographic exploration of YouTube, for example, introduced me to several fascinating things social media kiddies—and I mean this largely metaphorically here—say during their “reaction” videos.

The three man tag team of The Review Crew, for instance, in their “reaction” to the first part of the season two finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer titled “Becoming", introduced me to several  of the darndest things social media “kids” say online for anyone who wants to click on their “reaction” to hear. One of them. the bloke who is always stage right in The Review Crew “reactions", when “reacting” to Drusilla’s appearance in a church in a flashback in the episode, recalled that the mentally unstable Drusilla belonged to a “coven of nuns” (great name for a band or a b-grade American International Pictures flick?). A “coven of nuns”? Apparently, said “reactor” is unfamiliar with Catholic and Anglican terminology relating to nuns and monks and that said nuns live in convents. Did he confuse coven with convent?

Another, member of The Review Crew, the one who is always stage left when he is there, remarked when Angel appeared in the same scene and began to mentally torture Drusilla in the confessional, asked if the vampire Angel could enter a church uninvited. To be honest, I don’t know what this “reactor" was thinking of since churches have traditionally been public buildings to which everyone is invited to worship in, confess in, find sanctuary in, talk to the priest in, pray in, light candles for the dead in, etc.. It is not as though churches are private clubs where doorman check membership identification before they allowed to enter. Or was said “reactor" perplexed by the question of whether a “demon” like Angel could enter a church? Again churches welcome everyone even half human sinners like Angel so Angel can enter churches just like he can enter any other public building such as hospitals and schools. 

Of course, stage left bloke may have been wondering whether Angel could enter a church given that churches contain crucifixes, which are, in the Buffyverse, hazardous to the health of vampires (though we might agree with Adam that the vampire fear of the cross is just a state of mind) and, in the case of the liturgical churches, the fact that they are consecrated and contain holy water. Since Angel did enter the church in order to psychologically terrorise Drusilla in “Becoming”, in this case likely a Roman Catholic or an Anglican Church, we can assume he can enter a church as long as he steers clear of the crucifixes, which only work in the Buffyverse when a vampire is in close proximity to one, and the holy water. It would be nice to make another assumption, namely that those watching Buffy would be able to make these logical deductions and connections and fill in the televisual blanks though it appears that at least in some cases they cannot.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer isn’t the only television show or movie that brings out the wacky in “reactors” and “commenters". Once “commenter” on a YouTube video of the season one trailer for New Zealand television programme The Almighty Johnson’s, a television show about how the Norse gods ended up in New Zealand in the 19th century and are on a contemporary quest to find Frigg, who calls himself PiratenReport, whinges about his, her, or it’s inability to understand New Zealand English. Presumably, he, she, or it, has never done much in the way of travelling, never watches any TV shows outside his, her, or its parochial range—which I suspect is the United States—and who doesn’t grasp that if one immerses oneself in a language and culture one’s ear and cognitive state eventually adjusts in time and with a bit of effort. Another, who gives himself the moniker LFDNN22, whines about their being no need to watch any further seasons of the show since he, she, or it already knows who the Frigg, the goddess Axl/Odin and his brothers need to find in their quest in order to achieve their god destinies since he already knows who Frigg is. Clearly he, she, or it is deluded since he, she, or it cannot know who Frigg is at this point in the tale. As another commenter notes, he, she, it has mistaken someone else for the Frigg. Several puritanical types whinge about the nudity in the show foregrounding the fact that they have little idea about TV beyond what is like beyond, what I suspect, is the US. They appear to have a limited talent or no talent at all for researching what TV beyond their limited domain is like. One puritanical “commenter”, @loljustice32, by the way, whinges about the amount of female nudity in the The Almighty Johnsons chalking it up to that old saw of the male gaze missing the fact that there is as much if not more male nudity in the show than female. I should also note that he Norse gods and the Greek gods weren’t anymore puritanical than real humans actually are so holding up puritanical values in front of them is rather interpretively odd. @knold10000 whines about the mythology of the Norse gods the show got wrong failing to grasp that the Norse myths, just like the Christian Bible, have inconsistencies and contradictions, something he, she, or it could ascertain by doing a bit of real research but then he, she, or it would have to do research something that appears to be beyond the abilities of many if not most “reactors” and “commentators”.  I should note that this show is more accurate in its use of Norse mythology than the adolescent comic book versions are. I am not even going to mention “commentators” who “commented” on the show without seeing it in the first place other than to note that this is a far too common moronic trait particularly noticeable in the brave new digital media world.

Stay tuned...