Story got legs

[imomus]

Publication: Click Opera
Date: May 30th 2006
Title: Tell me about couples and surfing!
Intro: "I'm about to write my next Wired column. I've decided it's going to be about the effect of information addiction on the life of couples. And I'd like your help, because I don't want it just to be me going on about me."
Conclusion: "If you don't want your partner to know you're spilling the beans to Momus, tilt your screen away now."
Writer: Momus

Publication: C-NET News
Date: June 2nd 2006
Title: Are Net addictions taking a toll on couples?
Intro: "A Wired News columnist working on his next installment has triggered an online discussion about how "information addiction"--a condition that make us more likely to surf the Net than curl up in front of the tube--is affecting our romantic relationships."
Conclusion: "It seems that for some, couple-surfing is just a way of life in the digital world. For others, however, love and the Internet just don't mix."
Writer: Michelle Meyers

Publication: Wired News
Date: June 6th 2006
Title: The Kinsey of Clicking
Intro: "Last week, for a day, I became "the Kinsey of clicking."
Conclusion: "I think there is a narrative here, a social narrative formed by the aggregate of all the individual stories. The internet is -- and will remain for quite some time -- our dominant paradigm. There's no escaping it, nor its social impact. The best we can hope to do is co-habit with it. This, then, is the way we live now."
Writer: Momus

Publication: Reuters syndication to Yahoo News etc.
Date: August 3rd 2006
Title: "Love me, love my blog," as Netorati couple-surf.
Intro: "A man and a woman sit side-by-side in a New York cafe, drinking beer, sharing food, and not saying a word. Instead of chatting, they are typing on a laptop about the tunes played through a shared iPod."
Conclusion: ""After listening to what everybody had to say (on the blog) and thinking about my own relationship, I came to the conclusion that surfing doesn't damage relationships -- as long as both partners are equally into the Internet," [Currie] said by e-mail. "The question then is whether one of them is just faking it!"
Writer: Sara Ledwith

Publication: ABC News
Date: Next week
Title: TBA
Intro: "I'm from ABC News. We're interested in doing a story for our webcast on abcnews.com about couples or people dating that communicate electronically when they're together, rather than verbally."
Conclusion: Not yet written.
Writer: Carrie McGourty

Publication: Jornal do Brasil
Date: Next week
Title: TBA
Intro: "I'm a Brazilian journalist and I saw your article about couple-surfing at Wired News. We're now doing something similar to Brazil: we wanna know if couples here also share this kind of activity or if Web is not as acessible here as it's in Europe or Japan (only 25% of homes here have more than one point to acess internet)."
Conclusion: Not yet written.
Writer: Juliana A. Rocha

Momus conclusion: This is a fascinating example of how memes snowball. Something that started as an observation of a potential problem in my own life struck a chord with Click Opera readers, who supplied an extraordinarily readable 224 (and rising!) comments, the backbone of my subsequent Wired story. But even before the Wired story ran, C-NET published their own piece based on my probe. And, following the Reuters syndication of a piece based on the same data, everything's gone swarmy, with people writing to me from TV networks, or as far away as Brasil and China, wanting quotes from me and contacts for the people who left comments in the original Click Opera piece.

Like a novelist watching his characters "come alive of their own accord" then seeing his book adapted by Hollywood, I can only stand by powerless, opening and closing my mouth. A lot has got dropped from the script. I had some gay characters in my version, but none of them seem to have ended up in the more mainstream media's accounts, which reference "mothers" and "husbands" but seem to assume that couples are one male, one female. I had a nice appearance from the ghost of sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, a particular hero of mine, a man who set social dynamite beneath puritan America in the 1950s. But Kinsey's ghost, too, is missing from these mainstream accounts. I put "darker questions" about betrayal and pornography in my piece. These, too, failed to make it to the big screen. I had a sad ending; my last three "numbered aphorisms" were about disintegrating relationships and divorce. The rewrites have more upbeat endings. And who added this terrible John Williams score?

Still, it's nice to connect with a wider audience. I think the popularity of this story is the direct result of something I was talking about a couple of weeks ago. In Being (just a teensy bit less) digital, I said "I've always tried to bring the same attitude to these columns as figures like Nicholas Negroponte did to the original Wired; Negroponte didn't look at specific technologies so much as the human state of "being digital"." The less pompous version: technology is now central enough in people's lives for tech stories to overlap comfortably with human interest stories. Tech is less mono-gendered than it used to be; it's interesting that all the reporters picking up my couples story were women. The days when only men read tech-related stories are gone, just like the days when tech reporters had to write about geeky technical stuff; boxes and cables, routers and arrays.

So, encouraged by the amazing response to my couples story, I'm now working on a new Wired column about... well, about piezoelectrical systems, actually. Anybody got a human interest angle on those? Something that'll appeal to women as well as men? How have piezoelectrics impacted your relationship? When was the last time the ability of crystals to generate a voltage in response to applied mechanical stress made you cry? Exactly when and where were you when you first realized that, damn it, excitation of piezoelectrics produces more mechanical energy than the electrical energy used in the excitation thereof? And just what that meant for the world... and for your loved ones?

Don't hold back -- if I can collect enough compelling, colourful stories here, maybe we can sell this baby to Hollywood for some big, big gold.

Comments

It's international

[stanleylieber.livejournal.com]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/surfing-in-tandem/2006/08/03/1154198260720.html
http://www.theage.com.au/news/web/couplesurfing-a-trend-is-born/2006/08/03/1154198260720.html

Re: It's international

[imomus.livejournal.com]

They call the story "A Trend Is Born"... and then leave out all the gay characters? What are they, crazy?

Re: It's international

[nicepimmelkarl.livejournal.com]

stanley lieber is a sweetie.

[n3koch4n.livejournal.com]

this spawned at least two articles in italian language too: a reuters piece (here it is on yahoo.it (http://it.news.yahoo.com/03082006/58-59/internet-sui-blog-esplode-moda-couple-surfing.html)) and a subsequent one on repubblica.it (http://www.repubblica.it/2006/08/sezioni/scienza_e_tecnologia/internet-in-coppia/internet-in-coppia/internet-in-coppia.html), the online (sorely quite trashy) version of LaRepubblica (offline important daily paper).
they misunderstand and misreport a lot, and the tone is the usual moralistic/exaggerated one often found in such half-assed social commentaries on the italian press.

and repubblica.it don't even give you credit. in fact they believe imomus a 'monothematic blog on surfing couples' (sic!) derived from a wired 'provocation'. ha!

if you're interested in a translation of the two articles just ask

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Weirdly enough, I can totally understand written Italian, though I don't really claim Italian as one of my spoken languages. Maybe it's because I did Latin at school. It just flows off the page, and I can easily guess what it means.

La Repubblica definitely has the most poetic intro and outro:

"La casa del futuro è silenziosa e l'amore muto... E siamo solo agli inizi."

Guesslation: "The house of the future is silent and love mute... we are alone right from the start."

In Italy as well....

[mavi.livejournal.com]

You were also mentioned on the online version of the newspaper
"La Repubblica" (http://www.repubblica.it/) and more precisely here (http://www.repubblica.it/2006/08/sezioni/scienza_e_tecnologia/internet-in-coppia/internet-in-coppia/internet-in-coppia.html)

[rwillmsen.livejournal.com]

You could call it 'You've Got Mail'.

[hello-mike.livejournal.com]

When you originally implored us to share our experiences, I told myself that I'd make absolutely sure to read the article, and I never did. I am delighted to find myself #14. (And I sure sound a lot more coherent when you edit out the unexciting bits! I was sure it wasn't me, at first, except the last sentence.)

I have another sad, minority opinion about piezoelectrics, but I'm not sure if I'm quite ready to share it. I'll be on a plane tomorrow afternoon, maybe I'll have some time to compose my thoughts, there. It's quite personal, though.

[(Anonymous)]

I know a thing or two about piezoelectrics in the context you're talking about, but it's stuff nobody else knows, stuff that I can't tell anyone.

I'd tell you about it Nick, but you're just not ready.

On a slightly different tack, check out links to the Coral Castle, and the Modern Antiquarian section of Julian Cope's Head Heritage site, and wonder in awe at the massive sprawling piezo-network covering the uk.

[desant012.livejournal.com]

Cope's section of the internet stinks of patchouli

Congradulations

[ishinagami.livejournal.com]

As a 22 year old, and as a Momus fan, congratulations. Perhaps this is the answer to the questions you asked in how to get -and stay- famous.

Finally on the subject of your site(this possibly should be a part of an earlier comment), when the domain got switched from the demo.co address to the current imomus.com i was not aware of it for some time. Durring that space of time i feared you had died and the site with you. Its not like your a member of the beatles and i would see on the front page of the news, the next day that momus died in some tragic asian orgy accident.

Of course you weren't dead but given how you'd been for years with your site it crossed my mind as something serious. I feared never being able to listen to a new Momus song. There's something about your favorite musical artist, who no one else knows, suddenly not being there. That's not enjoyable. May you live long Momus.

Re: Congradulations

[imomus.livejournal.com]

momus died in some tragic asian orgy accident.

It's been a close call several times, I can tell you, son.

[kaipfeiffer.livejournal.com]

my extremely cheap, self built piezo microphones allow me to record my instruments almost without any noise from my surroundings -now, that is dramatic! i can vividly imagine homerecorder tom hanks shed some tears, when he finally manages to attach the cables to the piezo plate correctly, and then hits the "record" button - heart stopping! that should at least justify a collaborative score effort by john williams and hans zimmer.

[(Anonymous)]

The snowball won't end at Hollywood. People will bitTorrent the film, compare their own lives to the characters, feel lonely and start blogs.

[pixelmist.livejournal.com]

if I can collect enough compelling, colourful stories here, maybe we can sell this baby to Hollywood for some big, big gold.

Baby, dig it. Now let me say, as a tour guide at Paramount Studios, I feel comfortable saying I'm a Hollywood insider. And let me say, this story's got legs. I hate it, but I love it. I don't know why I like it, but I feel like it could make a cool twelve mil in arthouses. You disgust me, you fascinate me. Is your agent CAA or William-Morris?

No, you know, fuck it. This story is so 2006. I'm looking for 2035. You're yesterday's news, baby. How do you feel about that?! I'll be at the Chateau Marmond if you need me.

[desant012.livejournal.com]

Hey man, let's totally do lunch [phone-hand gesture]. But uhh .. don't actually call this time.

[nicepimmelkarl.livejournal.com]

http://nanoublissgliss.livejournal.com/139036.html#cutid1

[(Anonymous)]

I'm just writing to say congratulations on writing something so resonant with a wider audience! It's lovely--and a little frightening--to watch things grow on their own. Keep us posted if it keeps growing.

[jmathewes.livejournal.com]

Whoops, that was me!

[(Anonymous)]

Is this meme business supposed to be nice ("Oh you've sparked a fascinating idea, I'll take the ball and run with it out of sheer cultural curiousity") or nasty ("I have zero ideas and my publication needs copy, let's see who I can rip off for inspiration. Cool, Momus.. AGAIN.")?

[(Anonymous)]

What a very good idea you had. I hope it turns out well for you.

Eamonn

[zzberlin.livejournal.com]

<< if I can collect enough compelling, colourful stories here, maybe we can sell this baby to Hollywood for some big, big gold. >>

You're taking dirty Angrael dollars now, Momus?

Partners

[zzberlin.livejournal.com]

I've had it both ways. I've had boyfriends that were on their machines much more (daily) than I was. And now, I am the one who is on her machine all the time, my bfriend has more important things to do than prick at a keyboard all day.

This asymmetry has never been a problem. I liked that B1 was online almost ALL THE TIME, even though I wasn't, because as hobbies go, the internet is not a bad one for boyfriends to have. (He wasn't spending time with web porn, but I wouldn't have cared if he did.)

Now that I am the one online all the time, B2 makes fun of me and asks: "Is the INTERNET still there honey?! Hurry, it might break without your supervision!!"

SMART ALECK

[fishwithissues.livejournal.com]

i had a printer that used "micro piezo" technology to print out pretty kid pix pics--my art generated a lot of excitation! and I thought about playing "piezo" in scrabble one time but backed off, which was a good call.

[ohfuckyou.livejournal.com]

I posted this (http://ohfuckyou.livejournal.com/122716.html?mode=reply) on June 13 in response to the article.

[(Anonymous)]

I think your sudden interest in piezoelectrical systems only further evidences the total moral bankruptcy of your post modern "thinking". What is wrong with electromechanics??

der.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

"You are writing an article about black people? And what is wrong with white people?"

[cerulicante.livejournal.com]

Piezoelectric starters are key components in getting gas grills fired up, thereby allowing men to char dead animals over flames.

This is probably one of the most important things ever. EVER.

Something I think is important?

[zzberlin.livejournal.com]

Momus, I am so guilty of sharing my thoughts here, instead of in my own blog, because I know I will get more readership here.

I have a cause I would like you to adopt.

IP banning. Good, bad, necessary evil?

I have been shut out of a couple of sites because I write, uh, challenging material. These sites use a technique called IP banning to prevent anyone with an IP address associate with me from writing on their boards.

OKAY! You don't like me, I get it! But to IP ban me without even offering a routine email that says "hey you're too way annoying for our site! so we're banning you FOREVER!" I would respect any site that shut me out and let me know why. But sites that shut out users without an explanation? I believe this is a grave First Amendment (yes, I'm talking US constitution here) rights.

Are you willing to contemplate this issue, of IP banning, as your next installments for Wired come together?

Shamelessly promoting my own shit,
harriet

Re: Something I think is important?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty much "anything goes", generally anti-moderators and anti-censorship, but I will admit I came within an inch of IP banning you because of the trademark / identity theft stuff that came up a couple of weeks ago, and because I noticed you had a bunch of stuff on your own sites about "stalking Momus", which I found disturbing. But I did warn you, which produced a notable improvement, and I think that, although you can be somewhat eccentric, your contributions here are generally positive. So at the moment it's off the agenda, and will continue to be unless something aggressive or threatening comes up.

I wouldn't write about IP banning for Wired, no. As for the First Amendment, my understanding is that it doesn't protect a person's right to threaten another person in what is effectively their own front room.

[(Anonymous)]

The story was also featured on The Daily Yomiuri here in Japan a few weeks ago with your photo reprinted.