I saw this really cool film called Keeping it Real a few months ago.

This offbeat documentary, philosophical in scope but funny and down-to-earth, investigates why an increasing number of people in our modern, highly developed societies, are eagerly seeking “authentic,” real-life experiences.

Viewpoint Productions sums it up better saying:

Why is it so difficult to find authentic experiences these days? Director Sunny Bergman goes looking for originality in western society, a society that would appear to be dominated by packaged experiences, products of the experience economy. We see how Bergman and others search for authenticity but do not always manage to find it. The concept of authenticity is hard to grasp, let alone the demand for it.

‘The concept of authenticity is hard to grasp, let alone the demand for it’ is what Authenticity: Brands, Fakes, Spin and the Lust for Real Life sets out to investigate. I’ve just finished chapter one so i cant really say much about the book (although so far it’s promising) but film was really spot on.

So much of our daily lives is mediated by the media but we tend to forget the media is subjective. It might just be a simple innocent matter of a reporter’s point of view altering how a news story is reported. It could even be media subject to active censorship and manipulation *cough* Dubya *cough*

The internet changes things. But is this new decentralized media going to keep it real? Are we just trading life mediated by the media for life mediate by software? Well, the beauty of the internet is that you get to make your own tools so it’s up to us to answer that question.

Oh, that brings me to the point I was out to make! What’s so socal about social software? What so social about sitting in a room all by yourself chatting to someone one the other side of the world? The first generation of social sites were really crap. The current generation are promising. del.icio.us, flickr and audioscrobbler actually provide some sort of tangible value. The only problem is that you’re still stuck in a room, by yourself. flickr is the first one to break out of that mould with it’s ability to exploit cameraphones.

That’s just the start, Mogi, a location based online multiplayer experiene set in Tokyo, and other location based technolgies like it, provide a glimpse at where technology is headed. And this, for me at least, is technolgy keeping it real. It’s technology firmly rooted in physical space and complete with real social interaction.