Sick, and loving it
Hey all! Sorry I’ve been away–life called me to participate in certain must-be-there occasions that kept me from updating lately.
Anyhow, I’d like to give a shout-out to my good friend Elena for alerting me to an incredibly fun new website. She was watching a Jimmy Fallon interview with wonderful renaissance man Alan Cumming, and Cumming mentioned his current involvement with the site < itsasickness.com > . One of the many reasons I adore my best friends: they know me all too well–she sent me a late-night email urging me to check it out, describing it as a cool site where you can join groups for things you are obsessed with, and then you can share ideas/info with other people who are obsessed with it too. itsasickness describes itself with the following plotline on its Facebook fanpage:
it’s not about illness, it’s about sickness. your sickness is what makes you …extraordinary. that thing you geek out about, that is what makes you amazing.
itsasickness then celebrates our sicknesses and the most hardcore sick people with short films;
Alan Cumming is the itsasickness emcee.
itsasickness: obsession-based programming for an obsessive-based culture.”
*By the way, the all-lowercase writing is their thing, not mine. Just wanted to re-create their voice accurately.*
I went over to the site and my jaw dropped. What a fabulous idea for a website! People who are obsessed with things just like me, creating little worship corners for these things, exchanging information and inspiration about these things. In some ways, it’s sort of like Twitter, but more interesting for me because it has an intense focus. While Twitter is fueled more by stream of consciousness, itsasickness is fueled by cultivated obsession. Of course, the two sites serve different purposes, but I can’t help but draw a slight comparison since itsasickness is constantly updating in real time, and you can “follow” different members.
Cumming is essentially the emcee of the site, although I’m not quite sure what that means yet. In any case, he seems to be the public face of the site. You can create a profile, and upload a pic to personalize it. There is a “lounge” which is the part of the website that features “people like you geeking out about their sickness; whether it’s hula hoops, Doctor Who, or politics.” If you click on the “lounge” link, you’ll be directed to a page with celebrities talking about particular obsessions that they have, i.e. actor Jason Bateman has a video on there and he talks about how obsessed he is with classical music; actress Marisa Tomei talks about how she’s obsessed with hula hoops. My favorite page though is the “see all obsessions” page where you see an A-Z list of all the obsessions compiled so far. I think of it as a list of kindred spirits I haven’t met yet: Hello fellow human being, allow me to introduce myself–I’m someone who is as obsessed with cast iron cookware as you are!
I’ve already started creating obsession groups. I’ve made three: one about Amadeus (my fave film), one about alligators (among my top 3 fave animals), and one for squash fruit (to address my obsession with pumpkins and various heirloom squash). Then I panicked because I found out you can only create five–kind of a bummer because I had already made a mental outline of about 20 obsession groups I wanted to create. Oh well, I’ll just have to wait for some kindred spirits out there to create them.
I can add interesting articles, pics and videos related to each of these groups, and others who decide to share my obsession can also contribute info. If I see someone else’s obsession group that I like, I can join that obsession. For instance, I love luxury travel, so I joined the ‘luxury travel’ obsession that Alan Cumming created. If I come across a picture of a particular luxury hotel abroad that I’d like to share with the group, I can click on the ‘add content’ button on the group and post it there.
I think this is one of the most innovative social networks I’ve ever seen. Cumming mentioned that after joining an obsession group for truffle oil, he discovered a lot of new info about the product thanks to others who shared useful articles on the magic culinary substance. His experience represents the extreme loveliness factor of this website. It’s social networking with a focus on common ground, and could become a place for a genuine sharing of interests and information. Hey, you never know–that guy or girl who loves Madagascar Vanilla Red Tea just as much as you do may end up being your soulmate.
e
April 14, 2010I love this website. I love how it’s object-based. I’m over the social networking thing. Well, I mean, of course not, of course I’m on facebook – who isn’t. And fb rules. But that’s my social life. This obsession network is for my other life. Not really my private life – it’s more like my real life. I love love love it.
sunnyglobaldiva
April 14, 2010E, I’m enjoying the site too! The object-based aspect of it that you mention brings a fun spin to networking (if networking is even the right word for a site like this, but I can’t think of a different way to describe it).
Dominique Sybille via Facebook
April 14, 2010Have you seen the blog post of itsasickness (fredgooltz.com/blog/2010/02/itsasickness/) – according to that, “what itsasickness.com creates is NOT friendships and easy communication…The success of our site hinges on the individual’s ego…Mix Antiques Road Show with Metafilter crossed with The Gong Show plus early Carson, lace it with acid” it also states “We can see from what he [the user] tells us about himself that he would be interested in vacation deals, yoga DVDs, fast food coupons…” ie they are using your cookies (that you are required to accept to join) to target ads to you and make money off of that (=why Alan Cumming (the only capitalized part of the quote you list) lists products like luxury travel and flip video (heck, even Lena Zavaroni links to a friend of his book based on her)…look at the Dr. Who fan’s video – isn’t he a bit vulnerable w/his dolls???
Dominique Sybille
April 14, 2010Have you seen the blog post of itsasickness (fredgooltz.com/blog/2010/02/itsasickness/) – according to that, “what itsasickness.com creates is NOT friendships and easy communication…The success of our site hinges on the individual’s ego…Mix Antiques Road Show with Metafilter crossed with The Gong Show plus early Carson, lace it with acid” it also states “We can see from what he [the user] tells us about himself that he would be interested in vacation deals, yoga DVDs, fast food coupons…” ie they are using your cookies (that you are required to accept to join) to target ads to you and make money off of that (=why Alan Cumming (the only capitalized part of the quote you list) lists products like luxury travel and flip video (heck, even Lena Zavaroni links to a friend of his book based on her)…look at the Dr. Who fan’s video – isn’t he a bit vulnerable w/his dolls???
sunnyglobaldiva
April 14, 2010Hi Dominique,
I believe most websites are out there to earn money, but that doesn’t bother me. Most of my favorite websites have some form of advertising, whether overt or not. Cookies, metatags and otherwise are just the common order of the web today.
Val
April 14, 2010I don’t know much about the site, except that it’s getting a lot of buzz since being featured on Fallon’s show. This led me to research it a bit. I actually commend the founders of the site. It looks like they created it (at least initially) on Drupal, and it looks like they may have found a way to monetize from day 1… something that fb and countless other sites are struggling to do.
DS
April 14, 2010it creeps me out a bit – i hate getting targeted ads – they’re that much more distracting, and the idea of people competing to prove how “special” they are by obsessing over mundane things (ikea, tv shows, celebrities) creeps me out too – i don’t mind unobtrusive ads not geared to me, but a site asking me to prove how obsessed i am w/yoga dvds touting a yoga dvd for me to buy and telling me my obsession makes me special – no; but then i don’t obsess over tv shows and prefab furniture!
Elena
April 18, 2010I knew you would have trouble picking only 4 obsessions! I didn’t know that was that you could only CREATE 5, so I guess that worked out for you.
It used to freak me out that facebook knew so much about it. But that was only because I didn’t understand how it worked in the beginning 😉
ds
April 19, 2010I can’t find the link now but there was an article on how cookies are used by advertisers to give them personal history on you, so if you go to a store w/a coupon you printed from the internet (your email, fb…) they have your computer history (what your google search was that led you to their coupon, etc) and they tailor how they treat you w/the info they have on you..at minimum w/itsasickness since you have to give them your address, you can expect to be on catalogue or targeted mailing lists (ie junk mail) – but you’re right, fb is one of the worst and I’ve noticed nothing adverse from using it (though god forbid I’m ever fleeing from the police, they have a list of all your contacts!). It’s more the attitude in the link posted above — they are disingenuous and just trying to make money off of people using their site and providing personal info — it is very condescending!!
jon evan
April 22, 2010I joined this site too, a friend invited me to join this site on FB, the buzz did work, I guess 🙂 I googled around to see who’s talking about it and found your blog. Nice post!
The girl who got me on the site, we’re both into the Beatles… a lot… by joining the site, yeah, I suppose I’m telling the website what I’m obsessed with, but that has nothing to do with cookies.
But I don’t mind telling a website that I might want Beatles gear. I’ll tell the whole world.
FWIW, it doesn’t even push Beatles gear. It’s kinda just my sandbox to play in.
If they lard it up with stupid ads, maybe I’ll leave, but for now, it’s cool with me.