Posted on 09/27/2014 9:42:24 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
I SPENT the summer producing new “Candid Camera” shows, and among the many things I observed after a 10-year hiatus was that people are more easily fooled than ever.
That may seem counterintuitive, but I’m certain it’s true. Much has to do with multitasking. When my dad, Allen Funt, introduced the show over six decades ago, he had to work at distracting people. Nowadays they do it to themselves.
Many people we now encounter are fiddling with cellphones and other devices, tackling routine activities with less-than-full focus. That makes them easier targets for our little experiments, but also more vulnerable to personal mishaps and genuine scams.
I worried briefly that people are now so tech-savvy that some of our props and fake setups wouldn’t be believed. Instead, we found that the omnipresence of technology has reached a point where people will now accept almost anything.
We showed customers at a salon an “un-tanning machine” that ostensibly sucked off dark pigment in seconds. We told residents in a Denver suburb that they would be getting mail delivery via drone. We gave patients at a dentist’s office an iPad and said they’d now have to conduct their own “online dental exam.” In each case, just about everyone bought in. At the dental office, several people were even prepared to give themselves a shot of Novocain before we intervened.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Mail delivery by drone can’t possibly be any worse than the average letter carrier’s rate of success. That one’s all too easy to believe.
For later reading.
My gosh, this was great - thanks for posting !
In the comments, it was interesting how many people were cranky about showcasing human foibles. I suppose, though, the comment that the real world is increasingly bizarre is true, and it makes it harder for people to disbelieve what isn’t true.
IMHO laughing at yourself and at human foibles is healthy, and you might as well, since there is generally lots of material.
I watched the dental one. Idiots.
Where did you see the dental one?
TV
Ah! That one was not included in this article. I got a kick out of the garbage cans. My aged mother had to fight with her city on that. Finally, my husband called the city (2000 miles away) and asked if the garbage collector could please bring those cans to the curb for her (she was 98 and the cans were as big as she was.)
Only with a doctor’s note. (Her doctor was traveling overseas at the time.) “What do you have to know? She’s 98 and incapable of dragging those cans to the curb.”
They finally gave in.
Thanks for posting. I love Candid Camera, and will look for it on TV Land.
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