A satirical commentary of today’s social media and blogging subculture,
Parasocial: Life in Silicon Valley examines how fan Lori Silkun meets top-ranked linux blogger Paul Murphy. A pseudo Robert Scoble makes a cameo appearance in the third scene. Also available for comment on YouTube and Digg.

This movie really had its genesis last April, when I wrote about the strange Parasocial phenomena that has arisen in our social media culture. In short, referencing a summary written last week):

From people trying to “date” rock star, favorite female or male bloggers or putting them on pedestals to the blatant stalking by people like Brian Conolly/Amanda Chapel and the Kathy Sierra nightmare, we’ve given birth to a parasocial culture.

Regardless of form (this movie takes a poke at some of the more light hearted shenanigans that go on), it seems really silly to take x,000 Twitter followers, Facebook friends, or daily readers as a sign of arrival. While we do live in a world where influencing the few means more, success in this sense doesn’t really seem to warrant the kind of silly, and quite frankly, vain attention that’s developing. Thus I could not help but make Parasocial, and what better setting for the movie than Silicon Valley, the heart of this ridiculous culture.

Last week’s Pendulum post inspired many great comments on the topic from the likes of Valeria Maltoni and Debbie Weil. Later in the week some prominent bloggers wrote related posts. Most notably Pam Slim wrote “How to avoid being ‘fan boy’ or ‘fan girl when building relationships with people you admire.’” Jason Falls wrote a post about bloggers taking themselves too seriously.

It’s good to see people are actually talking about this now. More important than the silly stuff, is becoming aware of the heinous attacks that have spread and affected several of my personal friends. These attacks range from efforts to defame and the very public case of Kathy Sierra receiving death threats. While people will be people, the Internet does not need to be the Wild West. Change begins with acknowledgment.

P.S. A light apology to Robert Scoble who served as a bit of a foil in this movie. While there may have been other choices, all of the hub bub about him coming to Washington last week for big party made him the natural choice.