About the Many Virtual NYC Marathon YouTube Videos

Back on November 3rd the 2024 edition of the New York City Marathon happened, complete with its 50 thousand-plus entrants and the meandering course covering all of the Big Apple's five boroughs...in many ways it has become the most sought after long distance running event, even more than the Boston Marathon.  For a year or two I've enjoyed watching point-of-view YouTube videos recorded by some of the runners, lasting the entire race.  Some runners were fast, some average and there was one excessively slow dude.  Each video revealed some of that runner's personality and background while also showing their experiences as they ran past exuberant, cheering crowds.  For the most part, I like these videos and even exercise to them at home.  But three weeks ago, one of the marathon runners, Matt Choi...who is one of those social media "influencers" who earn money making themselves visible while promoting their sponsors' products...was permanently banned from all New York City races because he violated their rules by having cyclists in the midst of the crowded race, filming him from different angles while interfering with and endangering other runners.  I know that if I were such a runner, having gone through the difficult process of just getting accepted to run the race, then paying the expensive entry fee and making arrangements for staying up there...and then struggling to complete the event...I would have been put out and insulted by this one person acting as if I was "in the way" of his own entitled project.  And apparently the New York Road Runners, the organizers of this race and many others in the area, agreed when they banned Choi.  The incident got me to thinking about all those videos...I've found about nine so far...showing the race and all those other runners alongside them.  Usually the videos show what it would be like from a runner's viewpoint, showing what lies ahead and with the backs of the runners ahead of them on the course.  I'm fine with that, but a couple of the video recorders have a tendency to move their cameras to face backwards, behind themselves showing the faces and numbered bibs of the other racers.  I know that were I in such a race, I definitely would NOT like someone with a camera set on me without my permission...yet these people seem clueless about any such potential objection from others.  This virtual filming of races seems to be a male phenomenon. I have yet to see such a video produced for the NYC Marathon...or any other race shown this way on YouTube, for that matter...by a woman: I wonder if this means anything.  The NYC rule-makers clearly prohibit certain kinds of devices for runners to film the race, yet one of them clearly was violating it (he was one of those panning behind him for stretches of time).   I for one enjoy this vicarious type of racing experience I can do from my own living room, giving me a sense of the race environment and surrounding locale.  But it kind of makes me cringe to see the camera pointed for lengths of time at people who clearly had not assented to it.  On one level, it's a major public event, but on another, there are some privacy issues not being properly addressed...

Quote of the Week...from Oscar Wilde

There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

                                                              ---Oscar Wilde

Late nineteenth century Irish novelist and playwright Oscar Wilde is probably best known for his book The Picture of Dorian Gray, and he has a lot of witty things to say about this thing and that.  As for the above quote, I'm assuming I'm not to take it literally for I can come up with a lot of things in life worse than being talked about.  But I get what Wilde is trying to say here...let me expand upon it a bit.  It seems that in today's world, more than ever before, people at large are letting themselves get caught up in two seemingly diametrically opposite offenses. On one hand they are obsessed with privacy about their personal lives and while in public are sensitive to anyone passing their low threshold of what constitutes undue attention.  But on the other hand, they want to be known by others...in a good sense, of course...with their sense of self-worth tied in to how attractive their appearance and personality shows in public...and being ignored is offensive.  I just saw a social media post laying out a number of ways someone can determine whether another is stalking them in their gym...then saw an ad for my own gym that emphasizes how one can use it to make their bodies look like those of professional models, an obvious appeal for those prospective customers wanting to turn others' eyes toward them.  Social media is kind of peculiar in this regard, too, with the clamor for privacy always a major beef among various sites' users...yet they're using the sites to come out into the public arena, aren't they?  I have come to believe that while privacy is a legitimate and major concern for people to have, the fear of a future in which everyone has forgotten them becomes worse...as Mr. Wilde so eloquently stated.  I think people in general are unrealistic in that they want to control who pays attention to them and talk about them, while if they are realistic about it they will acknowledge that there's always going to be some unwelcome reactions to their presence and message  Still, there's a limit to what I'll put up with on this blog with some past trolls...you don't have to agree with me but you also don't have to be a jerk about it...   

"The Conversation" Post-Debate Reveals Surveillance Society

Being at work Tuesday evening, I missed most of the Democratic Party presidential campaign debate, broadcast on CNN.  There were six candidates on stage, including senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, both competing for the support of the party's more leftist progressive wing.  From what I did hear at the end after I got home, each candidate seemed to express their positions and philosophies pretty well and were able to adequately answer the questions posed to them.  Apparently, though, earlier on there was some kind of squabble between Warren and Sanders...following the debate, with the candidates still onstage congratulating each other, the two seemed to be engaged in a hushed argument, obviously not intended for others to hear.  Initially unaware of the ongoing spat, one of the other contestants, Tom Steyer, approached them and was seen momentarily taken aback at the quarrel.  Later on CNN he was asked what they were talking about and he responded by saying that he didn't hear it...a most diplomatic position when in all likelihood he did hear their conversation.  Yesterday the news buzz wasn't about the actual content of the debate itself but that very brief disagreement between the two senators.  And yesterday morning while I was waiting for the Senate to begin its proceedings on C-Span2, I watched CNN play an audio-enhanced recording of what they said, which eerily brought to me memories of an old 1974 movie starring Gene Hackman...

In The Conversation, Gene Hackman portrays a techno-geek who is known in his trade as an expert on bugging and surveillance.  A powerful business magnate, suspecting infidelity on the part of his young wife, hires him to spy on her and bring to him evidence of what she is up to.  Much of the movie revolves around a conversation he picks up...from his electronically souped-up van...between her and her suspected lover in an urban public park.  The movie explores how he is able to filter out extraneous noise and enhance that conversation, giving the clear impression that nothing is private anymore and that anyone who can afford it can spy on anyone else...the movie's ending clearly places an exclamation point on that notion.  Tuesday night following the debate, the CNN analysts did not as yet have access to the conversation between Warren and Sanders...only after a day of technical processing on somebody's part did they receive the audio.  Now of course the two senators weren't really having a private discussion since they were front and center on the national stage, but it wasn't meant for outside ears nevertheless.  Steyer was right in refusing to discuss what they said...unfortunately, CNN has revealed the depths to which they will go to push a story, in the process also demonstrating the utter lack of privacy or discretion left in our society...