http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4vkVHijdQk
This is a commercial for google chrome that I saw today when I was watching football. The commercial is about a dad who documents his daughters entire life through an email account that he set up for his new born daughter. The point of the ad is that, "the web is what you make of it." The ad uses this idea to bring out emotions in the viewer, and in turn hopefully begin using google chrome. The ad emphasizes the ease of using google chrome, and at the same time makes the viewer feel good about it by using the idea of love between the father and daughter.
The reason that I chose this video is because I believe it has a lot to do with privacy in the internet. In the book Born Digital, the idea that a parent will start a digital dossier of their children's lives before they even have a chance to influence them or protect themselves is talked about in depth. The things put onto the internet by the father could affect the child in many ways growing up, and potentially in ways that the daughter may or may not want to be on the internet in the future. In the commercial, the dad posts videos on youtube, uses google maps to put a link of their home address and photo of their home, and posts many pictures of the daughter.
While the point of the commercial is to invoke emotion in the viewer and to show the ease and capability of google chrome, it does ignore the ideas of internet privacy and safety that could come from using the internet to post personal information on the web. This commercial shows how the internet can be a great tool as people grow up in the digital age, however it must be used wisely so that the information that is put on the web can be kept private and safe from those who you would rather not see it.
I love this video! I actually saw it a few months back. It evoked a lot of emotion within me. Although this is a wonderful idea, the dad is creating an extensive online profile of his daughter without her knowledge. When used appropriately, however, the Internet can be a wonderful thing. In this case, the little girl's safety is most likely not at risk as a result of her digital dossier.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about how the video and the father documenting will affect the girls life in the future. Privacy is a big thing that each person is born with and I think who is he to decide wether to make his daughter go public from when she is a little girl. The video does give good motives to start this but people forget that the internet is a dangerous place to put information that anyone can access.
ReplyDeleteI think the dad had good intentions in wanting to document his daughter's life but he probably wasn't thinking about her privacy when posting the information online.
ReplyDeleteMost people post things online without even thinking about the privacy implications. For example if you were going to post a picture of you and you friends online would stop and think if okay with them before posting and tagging them, a lot of people wouldn't. It's not just your own privacy you have to think about when posting online but also your friends and families.
Great example of visual rhetoric! It is meant to strongly appeal to pathos in the reader, but, as you point out, there a very important omission from this rhetorical message - it does not address the realities of privacy and safety online.
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