Response to Greg's Research

Hi Greg,

I’m not sure if you’ve decided yet whether to go with your initial research on disruptive awe/buzzfeed awe or pursue your curation post on biology and robots, so I’ll give a little feedback on each. (I suspect that nobody’s done a substantial post on yours yet because both ideas are already well researched and thorough, even in their preliminary form. Kind of like the paper that Fellows are scared to fellow….)

Buzzfeed Awe

A counterargument (to the extent that there’s an argument and that I understand it enough to counter it) to consider here: People know that the buzzfeed experience is cheap. A prerequisite or at least postrequisite to experiencing awe is recognizing it as such. I’ve browsed my fair share of buzzfeed, and my motives stemmed from boredom or search for novelty or whatever, but never from search for awe. And I don’t think that people come away from buzzfeed feeling real, stick-with-you, perspective-changing awe. Something’s going on with buzzfeed (or tumblr or pinterest or whatever), but it might not be awe.

Also, something that buzzfeed might do well is expose its consumer to the unknown, causing them to seek out something previously undiscovered to inspire real awe, or recollect a moment of real awe. Like, hypothetically, someone could read a list of reasons your mom is cool (my friend just posted one on this topic which I won’t repost because it’s not that clean now that I’ve actually read it) and that could cause the reader/viewer to connect or reconnect with their mom. Or a fallacious post about oceans could lead you to discover a counterpost and learn some legitimately awe-inspiring things about oceans, thanks to Google Scholar (https://blogs.discovermagazine.com/science-sushi/2013/08/23/16-things-buzzfeed-doesnt-know-about-the-ocean/).

In light of that, if you stick to this path, you might further explore or prove that awe is a fundamental human need. I’m still not sure I’m convinced of that. People can survive without awe.

Biology and Robots

This idea seemed to garner some more interest/ pass the social proof test with a higher score. But that might just be because of the youtube videos. Where do you come up with stuff like that? The Kara one freaked me out. 

This avenue would definitely be linked with Erin’s ideas on terror and awe. And probably linked somewhat to Paul’s videogameage, which we all know would be a terrible setback to your argument considering my ardent personal opposition to all things videogame. But the avatar exploration is awe-inspiring and digital and has solid ties to literature in a bunch of centuries—Frankenstein comes to mind as a prime example. This article might help.

Cheers, happy researching, etc.,

Jane