Social Experiment on Street Harassment

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Needless to say, at nearly 40 million views, 10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman is a viral phenomenon.  It also provoked a firestorm of comments, numbering at 143,004 right now.  Some are relatively viral in their own right, and YouTube highlights these as Top Comments.  So have a read.

So as a social experiment, and I use the word experiment very loosely, I imagine the video serves its purpose well.  That is, those who felt moved perhaps donated to Hollaback:

What is Hollaback?

The real motive of street harassment is intimidation. To make its target scared or uncomfortable, and to make the harasser feel powerful. But what if there was a simple way to take that power away by exposing it? You can now use your smartphone to do just that by documenting, mapping, and sharing incidents of street harassment. Join an entire community ready to Hollaback!

Our mission

Hollaback is a movement to end street harassment powered by a network of local activists around the world. We work together to better understand street harassment, to ignite public conversations, and to develop innovative strategies to ensure equal access to public spaces.

Our vision

We envision a world where street harassment is not tolerated and where we all enjoy equal access to public spaces.

Hollaback has admirable lists of Awards + Funders.

Some, perhaps many, scientists would readily balk at how unsystematic this approach is at elucidating the issue of street harassment.  Science works at building our knowledge and understanding of things via research design, statistical analysis, and judicious interpretation of results.  But one reason I used the word experiment earlier is that this sort of video does indeed elucidate street harassment, but not just this: It also elucidates what I have come to call The Human Algorithm.  That is, we millions of viewers and commentators, plus YouTubers who uploaded related videos, are very much part and parcel of this social experiment.

So is Hollaback itself, as it apparently engaged a viral video marketing agency Rob Bliss Creative to provoke, inform and persuade.  Whereas science builds our knowledge and understanding dispassionately, intellectually, even objectively, art (i.e. creativity) does so via emotionally, viscerally and subjectively.  I'd say this agency has been wildly successful with this effort.  Nevertheless, before you open a new tab and click Donate for Hollaback, I suggest watching a thoughtful review from The Young Turks: Discussion About '10 Hours Of Walking In NYC As A Woman' Viral Video.