poliklosio (December 31, 1969 at 6:59 pm)

When you are natural, you are more sexy andthat's something that may make you more viewed. :)By the way, people understand better when someone expresses more emotions and that is true the first time someone talks, so I think it is not so much about authenticity in the filosophical meaning.

ultralazarus (December 31, 1969 at 6:59 pm)

One way of appearing "authentic" is to shoot the video in the wider world, eg in a park, in front of a physical landmark or building, on a street-kerb, etc. I think this is why TV stations shoot a physical living panorama (usually live) onto the screen behind the typical political interviewee, rather than simply onto a blank background.

parispeter2 (December 31, 1969 at 6:59 pm)

And people may appreciate your spontaneous videos because spontaneity is IN. Our societies have -justifiably - revolted against inhibition and repression, with the result that they think that ANYTHING spontaneous (reality TV, literary confessions etc etc) must be interesting. Which is manifestly false.

parispeter2 (December 31, 1969 at 6:59 pm)

I think you need to distinguish authenticity and spontaneity. When we are spontaneous we often regret what we do or say, i.e. it doesn't reflect who we really are, so we can be spontaneous without being authentic. But even the notion of authenticity supposes immediate access to an underlying self. This also needs to be questioned.

PaulBuffalo (December 31, 1969 at 6:59 pm)

Faking would be if you and your friends laughed your heads off at the comments and said "Look people actually think it's on the level." In a way lonelygirl 15 was cruel. A lot of people tell me never to take any exchange between strangers online seriously. There are so many people playing, maybe you also.

BaronSavvy (December 31, 1969 at 6:59 pm)

Saying that, I think that the way people choose to present themselves is really as authentic as it gets, so we should all just be happy to kind of take that as how a person really is - even if they are putting on an act, it still comes from the kind of person they are. This doesn't pertain to lonelygirl or any of that though, this is just your average nervous vloggers I'm talking about.

BaronSavvy (December 31, 1969 at 6:59 pm)

I don't want this to come off as very dramatic but - You're never really getting an authentic representation of a person in their more honest form anyway. Everything about how you chose to speak and present yourself is a way of editing your personality so you feel you are being percieved in the best way. On video, that aspect is just totally amped up to the max. People get really self-conscious.

theworldswanderer (December 31, 1969 at 6:59 pm)

But if authentucity is coupled with "originality", then the situation changes radically, because originality does not have (and, in fact, almost never is) to be associated with spontaneous/impulsive/instinctive behaviour. It would be interesting ot perform some empirical research about this topic in relationship with youtube, but I am almost sure there is a lot of scientific publications in the literature about the general problem.

theworldswanderer (December 31, 1969 at 6:59 pm)

Authenticity is not necessarily linked with "first impression" or "absence of script". I think the concept contains different layers coupled with different levels of expectations. For example: is youtube is seen as the place where "a rant is a rant" or people can be themselves, then scripting of any form can be seen as a kind of betrayal to authenticity, because of the expectations coupled with this layer of meaning.

StevenErnest (December 31, 1969 at 6:59 pm)

....but then you get into what's truly authentic, as with art. What if someone is B.S.ing with a simple vlog? Maybe just to get noticed. What if a vid is extremely produced, scripted, acted -- but an honest and sincere artistic statement? Post lonelygirl, it would seem the far fiction end should have a disclaimer of some kind. Fiction vs. Documentary.