Copy-cat syndrome

October 18th, 2009

There are two things I want to discuss this week, mainly because the end result is the same.
The first: Is imitation really the sincerest form of flattery? The second: When does copying become stalking?
Question one is not easy to answer. Celebrities use imitation to gauge their popularity, and more than a few – such as Kate Moss – have turned their much-imitated personal style into clothing lines and profited from them.
Very few people will actually say they find copy-cats annoying. A close friend of mine wasn’t sure what to think recently when some friends told her that a clone of her was seen at a function. While she is not a celebrity, she is frequently photographed and the offender was said to be a fan of hers.
Fan or not, my friend still felt invaded, and is hovering between being flattered and enraged.
“There’s a fine line between what is flattering and what invades your sense of identity and privacy,” she said.
No one in her right mind would really want to be the doppelganger of someone else, though in extreme cases there have been some of those.
But when someone is going about her own private life, albeit a slightly more high profile one than most people’s, imagine how she would feel if someone is dressed in an exact copy of her outfit – that was specially designed – and in the same colour!
Short of staying home and not allowing photographs to be taken, there is nothing one can really do if someone wants to copy one’s style.
There’s nothing wrong with admiring someone’s personal style, but it would be better if it was adapted to suit one’s own tastes and body shape.
Which leads me to my second point.
Another friend said, “There’s a difference between copying and stalking.”
Stalkers used to be people who managed, through persistence and effort, to find out someone’s daily routine. And you didn’t have to be famous to have a stalker.
Nowadays, people can stalk you even without actually following you. With pictures taken and uploaded in real time, the rules governing privacy seemed to have changed.
Should you ask permission before posting pictures of a private event? Are your privacy settings adjusted so that only certain people can see your photos?
If attending functions and events are part of your job, there is no way you will ever know exactly how many photos of you are floating in cyberspace.
If that is the case with public events, what about the private ones?
Not everyone is as enamoured with themselves or are narcisstic enough to want their photos seen by everyone. And there is an equal number of people who really don’t care because, they say, they have nothing to hide.
That may be the case, but there will be photos years later that they may not want people to see but by then it would be a bit too late, wouldn’t it?
The thing with these “public” photos is that you won’t realise people have seen them unless someone tells you. For a non-celebrity, it becomes unnerving when people know where you go, who you’re with and what you’re wearing. That’s kind of creepy, isn’t it? And considered an invasion of privacy.
That leads to cyber-stalking, and there isn’t much that one can do about it. You can’t stop copy clones and style snatchers, and you can’t stop people from knowing what you do and where you go.
This is the age of social media, identity theft, information overload and paparazzi frenemies. And your life becomes a virtual reality show, shaped by an unknown production team and watched and interpreted by an invisible audience.
That’s more scary than bumping into a clone of yourself, don’t you think?
source: thestar.com.my