Cross-cultural semantics and realities
On Sunday, I heard an Israeli TV executive talk about the "campfire".
That one word triggered a reaction in my brain to solve a problem that has been gnawing at me for the last year.
I have asked many people, on and off camera, if there should be aspects to creating a social network or using social media that are particular to one country or one group of people. Inherently we know that the answer is yes, and the beauty of the large social platforms is the ability for each group to be able to carve out its particular niche.
The best example of this is the use of the "poke". In certain cultures, it is just a notice to a friend "wanted to just say hi, but had nothing to say". In other cultures, it is the beginning of the 21st century mating ritual. The group decides on a social norm, and treats deviance with non-inclusion.
The TV exec spoke about the fact that Reality TV has a larger percentage of the audience here than in any other country on Earth, largely because of the campfire culture. Everyone wants to be able to talk about the characters on Big Brother and Survivor Israel. Personally, I have never watched either, so I am unable to bring the names of the contestants that everyone talks about, loves and hates.
Growing up in America on a steady of Seinfeld and Friends, we referred to this phenomenon as "the water cooler".
But hearing the word "campfire" escaping the lips of the exec, I realized that it is a completely different phenomenon.
A little history of both terms.
In the United States of America, people have these arcane constructs called jobs. They sit in cubicles and fill out reports all day about irrelevant information. (Disclaimer: All my knowledge about working in a job comes from the movie "Office Space".) They form relationships and bonds with inhabitants of adjacent and nearby cubicles. They overhear juicy personal details that they didn't really want to know, and request for their neighbors to lower the radio. And every once in a while, when they must leave their cubicle for hydration, they saunter over to the water cooler, where they are able to procure either cold or hot water, the latter useful for the creation of either poor instant coffee or tea. If I were to work in an office, I would be a tea person.
Like women to the restroom, these cubicle-dwellers are unable to drink alone. They seek to form temporary connections and relationships with their coworkers, but not overtly personal ones. As homo sapiens know that relationships are formed upon commonalities, these office inhabitants attempt to find an non-professional lowest common denominator to incorporate the highest number of coworkers. In a culture of eating fast food and watching network television, that common denominator is the television. The barrier for entry is low, being only required to invest between 1/2 and 1 hour nightly to provide fodder for excited conversation the following day. Hence, anyone can join the conversation, even on the first day of a new job in a new city. Conversely, it makes switching of employment centers simpler, as the worker does not have to fear that he has shared too many personal details with fleeting confidantes.
In Israel, most children join one of the many youth movements. The parents choose the movement for their young children based on a complex algorithm comprising of some of the following factors: political and religious views. The children grow up in the movement, meeting once a week, and solidifying their social graph based on who is in the movement. Once in a movement, the child in de facto part of a large social network in which they can clarify relations to anyone in the country based on a few choice questions. As Israelis are, historically, outdoorsy, many of these weekly meetings would take place in a local wooded area, and the members of the group would sit around a campfire. As the children grow, they may get together with their friends outside of the framework of the movement, yet will still create campfires (on beaches, in forests, or wherever), and just sit and talk.
As there are only a few archetypes in Israeli culture, the reality tv programs aim to branch all the different cultural players in a single location. Therefore, when Israelis sit around the campfire, they are able to discuss what they think about culture as a whole and the others in society with the assistance of using the characters as proxies. The characters are able to, as well, become goodwill ambassadors for their stereotype.
I remember, a few years back, the Israeli youth made a mass exodus to the Galilee for the finale of the Israeli version of Pop Idol ("A Star is Born"). The teens in the bus station were talking about sleeping on the beach, making bonfires, and just having fun.
The act of making a bonfire is a group affair. You have to find flammable material than no one will yell at you for taking. But after all the work is done, and someone actually starts the fire, the conversation turns personal. Everyone sits around, talking. True friendships are forged around the campfire.
The water cooler and the campfire both may simple be central locations around which people gather around, eat/drink and talk, but when you look under the surface, you see that they are extremely different constructs.
In Israeli culture, the campfire has extended to the office, the cafe, and the dog walks, but the culture is still the same. The campfire culture is one of coming together, whereas the water cooler culture is one more of coexisting.
That one word triggered a reaction in my brain to solve a problem that has been gnawing at me for the last year.
I have asked many people, on and off camera, if there should be aspects to creating a social network or using social media that are particular to one country or one group of people. Inherently we know that the answer is yes, and the beauty of the large social platforms is the ability for each group to be able to carve out its particular niche.
The best example of this is the use of the "poke". In certain cultures, it is just a notice to a friend "wanted to just say hi, but had nothing to say". In other cultures, it is the beginning of the 21st century mating ritual. The group decides on a social norm, and treats deviance with non-inclusion.
The TV exec spoke about the fact that Reality TV has a larger percentage of the audience here than in any other country on Earth, largely because of the campfire culture. Everyone wants to be able to talk about the characters on Big Brother and Survivor Israel. Personally, I have never watched either, so I am unable to bring the names of the contestants that everyone talks about, loves and hates.
Growing up in America on a steady of Seinfeld and Friends, we referred to this phenomenon as "the water cooler".
But hearing the word "campfire" escaping the lips of the exec, I realized that it is a completely different phenomenon.
A little history of both terms.
In the United States of America, people have these arcane constructs called jobs. They sit in cubicles and fill out reports all day about irrelevant information. (Disclaimer: All my knowledge about working in a job comes from the movie "Office Space".) They form relationships and bonds with inhabitants of adjacent and nearby cubicles. They overhear juicy personal details that they didn't really want to know, and request for their neighbors to lower the radio. And every once in a while, when they must leave their cubicle for hydration, they saunter over to the water cooler, where they are able to procure either cold or hot water, the latter useful for the creation of either poor instant coffee or tea. If I were to work in an office, I would be a tea person.
Like women to the restroom, these cubicle-dwellers are unable to drink alone. They seek to form temporary connections and relationships with their coworkers, but not overtly personal ones. As homo sapiens know that relationships are formed upon commonalities, these office inhabitants attempt to find an non-professional lowest common denominator to incorporate the highest number of coworkers. In a culture of eating fast food and watching network television, that common denominator is the television. The barrier for entry is low, being only required to invest between 1/2 and 1 hour nightly to provide fodder for excited conversation the following day. Hence, anyone can join the conversation, even on the first day of a new job in a new city. Conversely, it makes switching of employment centers simpler, as the worker does not have to fear that he has shared too many personal details with fleeting confidantes.
In Israel, most children join one of the many youth movements. The parents choose the movement for their young children based on a complex algorithm comprising of some of the following factors: political and religious views. The children grow up in the movement, meeting once a week, and solidifying their social graph based on who is in the movement. Once in a movement, the child in de facto part of a large social network in which they can clarify relations to anyone in the country based on a few choice questions. As Israelis are, historically, outdoorsy, many of these weekly meetings would take place in a local wooded area, and the members of the group would sit around a campfire. As the children grow, they may get together with their friends outside of the framework of the movement, yet will still create campfires (on beaches, in forests, or wherever), and just sit and talk.
As there are only a few archetypes in Israeli culture, the reality tv programs aim to branch all the different cultural players in a single location. Therefore, when Israelis sit around the campfire, they are able to discuss what they think about culture as a whole and the others in society with the assistance of using the characters as proxies. The characters are able to, as well, become goodwill ambassadors for their stereotype.
I remember, a few years back, the Israeli youth made a mass exodus to the Galilee for the finale of the Israeli version of Pop Idol ("A Star is Born"). The teens in the bus station were talking about sleeping on the beach, making bonfires, and just having fun.
The act of making a bonfire is a group affair. You have to find flammable material than no one will yell at you for taking. But after all the work is done, and someone actually starts the fire, the conversation turns personal. Everyone sits around, talking. True friendships are forged around the campfire.
The water cooler and the campfire both may simple be central locations around which people gather around, eat/drink and talk, but when you look under the surface, you see that they are extremely different constructs.
In Israeli culture, the campfire has extended to the office, the cafe, and the dog walks, but the culture is still the same. The campfire culture is one of coming together, whereas the water cooler culture is one more of coexisting.
