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I Spy...
Jennifer Schneider
January 22, 2001
Signs are cropping up everywhere in popular culture indicating the most recent trend among individuals - voyeurism. Since the broadcast of programs like Survivor and Big Brother, there has been an outbreak of media commentary on the fascinating practice of watching others.
Not since the release of the Hitchcock's classic, Rear Window, has the media become just as enthralled as the public; each new drama that seeped out of the deserted exotic location of Survivor, where the Darwinian concept survival of the fittest was overthrown by conspiracy and manipulation, received comprehensive media coverage. It comes as no surprise that the Internet also fosters the public's desire to become entangled in the lives of others through the passive act of watching.
With the advent of web-cams, people have been able to watch the lives of others as easily as settling down for a night of prime time television. While one can imagine the innumerable useful and innovative ways in which web-cams are used, abuse of such technologies is also infinite, not to mention rampant. Funeral-cast.com (http://www.funeral-cast.com) is a site that illustrates both technological potentials.
For $250 one can watch funerals via web-cams on their computers from this site. It could be as simple as anyone who visits the site and pays the fee could watch. However, if the family wishes, restricted access can be implemented to deny anyone other than those the family selects. In such a case, passwords would be issued. This is advantageous in that it allows those who are unable to attend participate in some other manner.
Although web-casts of funerals present auspicious options for families dispersed in different countries, it is a capital venture that requires even family members to pay. One can anticipate that other sites will soon begin web-casting private funerals of celebrities.
Whether or not one's voyeuristic tendencies propel her or him to go so far as to pay money to watch funerals is uncertain. Most of us will probably just stick to Survivor.
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