Remember the "webcam" phenomenon from circa 2001? It seems like everyone was talking about buying a webcam, or about the successful young women who recorded themselves sitting in front of the computer using early digital cameras and then transmitted that information over the Internet using primitive technology--and were showered with attention and even gifts by lonely male Internet users.
Before The Flash Website Video Player
These early Internet celebrities didn't have a Flash website video player on their sites. Often, what they had was just a primitive, static .jpeg image that got automatically updated, and a page that was set to automatically refresh. This resulted in a sequence of static shots--kind of like that early "movie" that just consisted of still photographs of a horse running.
Pretty soon, there was a backlash against these online exhibitionists. In retrospect, it's not hard to see why. The idea of a "webcam" implies so much more than watching a page reload over and over again and seeing the same face in a slightly different position--without any sound, without any change of scenery, without any kind of change at all, in fact. No wonder that the only people who never got tired of webcams were the sad young men and women (mostly men, it would seem) who could look a that same unchanging face over and over again, and daydream about companionship.
The Flash Website Video Player: Exhibitionism Lives Again
Today's advanced technology fulfills that original promise that drove so many would-be exhibitionists to go out and purchase webcams. Most people who originally bought webcams didn't want to become objects of desire for loners. Rather, they wanted to share their dynamic voices and personalities with the world in a way that is impossible to do with voice, text, or images alone.
The word "webcam" originally evoked a futurist utopia where communication was instant and perfect; a place where war didn't exist anymore because people in other countries could look at videos of each other laughing, speaking eloquently, having fun, and engaging in honest debates; a place where everyone's voice was heard and no one was anonymous unless they wanted to be anonymous.
What better way to bring this utopia to life, than by incorporating streaming video on your own personal blog? Today, Flash technology allows Internet users to view long, high-quality videos instantaneously--videos that are complete with sight and sound, and filmed using state-of-the-art digital cameras. Put this technology to work for you on your own site. Film yourself talking, acting--doing whatever it is you love. You could even film yourself cooking in your kitchen, or taking a walk around your neighborhood. You can film anything you want, and it will represent you--the real you, not just some images and text. |
