<
https://theconversation.com/playing-on-good-feelings-when-eudaimonic-social-media-goes-bad-187074>
"Twenty-something Melburnian Harrison Pawluck could be doing worse things than
building a TikTok audience through “random acts of kindness”.
He’s not out on the streets pulling risky pranks or provoking angry
confrontations. He doesn’t promote bogus cryptocurrency schemes, cancer cures
or conspiracy theories. Instead he films strangers’ reactions to him doing
things such as paying for their groceries or handing them flowers.
Even so, the controversy sparked by his most successful video to date (viewed
nearly 65 million times) underlines the problematic ethics of “feel-good”
content – both for creators and consumers.
The 19-second video shows Pawluck asking an elderly woman in a food hall to
hold a bouquet of flowers as he puts on a jacket. He then wishes her a lovely
day and walks off. “I hope this made her day better,” the caption reads. It
didn’t.
Since becoming aware of the viral video, Melbourne woman Maree has spoken out
about feeling patronised and exploited. Pawluk has offered an apology of sorts,
but said he won’t stop make such videos:
I know my true intentions and I know that, if I can inspire even 1% of the
people that watch my content to go out there and do something good, I have
done something that I believe is good for the world.
This defence would work better if Pawluck weren’t monetising his videos. The
fact there’s a market for such content, however, raises questions. How can
content be truly altruistic with so many commercial factors at play?"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
