acting in ways

Shaming doesn't work very well anymore. Our societies and communities have changed. We live in an anonymous society of single-family dwellings, lonely car commutes to work, and tenuous social connections that we have to work harder and harder to maintain. And we are transient - we move from place to place quickly and easily, shedding identities and pasts, endlessly reinventing ourselves. We cannot be shamed because there is no single inescapable community that knows us, gossips about us, and watches us for signs that we are acting in ways contrary to the accepted standards of society.

-- The Peep Diaries by Hal Niedzviecki

out loud, how embarrassing

"There are moments," casting producer Tamra Barcinas tells me, "where it's like 'I can't believe you would say that out loud, how embarrassing.' But they'll have a screening party back home with their friends and family, and they're so thrilled that they actually got to be on TV. That was their moment."

-- The Peep Diaries by Hal Niedzviecki

love watching ourselves

We're all learning to love watching ourselves and our neighbors. Peep's power is that it is widespread and elusive. It's a whispered, hypnotic idea: You need to know. You need to be known. In Peep we feel the cathartic release of confession, the allure and danger of gossip, and the timeless comfort of ritual. When we peer in on each other, we experience the thrill of performance, the purge of the talking cure, the erotic frisson of forbidden sex. Peep culture takes from all those things, but isn't any of them.

-- The Peep Diaries by Hal Niedzviecki