[ccity88]

I think it's a reflection of our modern age that, and I know this has been said before to death, that authenticity has been chased out of the window. The social media of 2006 is gone. I can never see a viral clip and take it at face value, because in all likelihood it's a manufactured, scripted and acted gig. I don't think we'll ever get authenticity back unless we get rid of the incentive to make videos - i.e get rid of the pay per view schemes, and the ad dollar machine altogether. One day we're going to look back on this age and marvel at how much lost productivity, time and energy was spent on creating useless videos to capture attention for a minute or so.

[xkcd-sucks]

Has there been a time when authenticity was guaranteed? Books like "English as She is Spoke", Pliny's "Natural History", "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", fanciful paintings and drawings of exotic animals, explorers' dubious memoirs, paid mourners/celebrants/demonstrators, nasty allegations against rival political/religious groups, etc. are as old as history

[timdellinger]

In 2005, you could trust Amazon ratings and reviews.

The early phase of - well, basically everything - tends to have authenticity. Then the opportunists step in.

This is true of any trend, be it cultural or technology.

[sharkweek]

The Nathan For You episode where he makes a video of a goat being saved in a pond by a small pig that went insanely viral pretty much made me aware that anything I could be watching has been manufactured.