Gary Turk Lays It on a Bit Thick in Viral Video 'Look Up'

22 million hits on YouTube in a couple of weeks is a social media jackpot. Except the video Look Up by Gary Turk denounces the use of social media, urging us to 'Look Up' from our phones lest we miss an opportunity such as the love story opined in the video, which we learn didn't happen as the suitor was on his phone instead of looking up to ask the pretty passer-by for directions.

The video has been shared all over the place on social media platforms by pop stars, sports heroes and millions of others. I woke up this morning to see a few of my friends sharing the link on Facebook and writing underneath how the video can change your life.

Turk tells us we are a 'generation of idiots', 'smart phones and dumb people' and how when he was a child he would spend his entire time outside, getting holes in the soles of his shoes, and building tree houses. His poem warns us that all this time spent on social media means we won't have any real friends to play with.

He neglects to mention the real people who have used social media to meet partners and friends on dating websites, as well as the real people who can join together to share interests and hobbies. Remote islands with tiny populations are probably grateful to expand the number of people they can connect with after living in the pockets of a couple of hundred people for years on end.

When I was at university the internet and mobile phones weren't widely available. I think we had an email address but the only place you could access it was in a specific computer room on campus which negated its efficacy rather. It would have been quicker to walk to my friend's house to have a chat.

A young guy in the office today asked me what we all did without the internet. However he seems to spend his time in much the same way as I did in my early twenties. He is just as adept at forming relationships as anyone from my generation, and although he claims to use his phone loads, I've seen him sitting outside the pub chatting to his workmates at the end of the day on numerous occasions.

Turk's video uses emotive language to persuade us that no one chats to each other anymore because we are all too busy checking Facebook. Clearly that is untrue. I have no fewer friends now than I did at university. Walking down the main street in Mount Maunganui this morning there were a sprinkling of people on their phones, but the majority were chatting, drinking coffee and shopping.

It's healthy to monitor one's use of smartphones and social media, but to blame it for the missed opportunity of a lifelong relationship is far fetched. My eyes also rolled at the nauseatingly unrealistic depiction of roughly 50 years of marriage resulting from asking a stranger for directions. The rosy spool through the years of marriages, births and more births and lashings of hand holding and adoring gazes is enough to make anyone slightly cynical.

There have typically been polarizing views on the video, ranging from plaudits for its inspirational message to accusations of hypocrisy. One of my favourite comments was from someone who shared the video on Facebook with the pompous declaration 'I discussed this FACE TO FACE with a friend today.' The irony that they were taking time out of interacting with real people to share on Facebook was clearly lost, but it does illustrate my view perfectly. Most people are doing both.

Interactions in our lives need to be managed by us. We always need to check ourselves to make sure we aren't watching too much TV, spending too much time on Facebook, or, God forbid, socialising with real people. I admire the way Gary Turk made his video. It's a clever little poem and has been filmed well. I just wish the message wasn't so unnecessarily extreme.

Bio: Jenny Rudd spent 6 years as a trader in London befpore returning to New Zealand in 2007 making the transition from numbers to letters by heading up the content team at MOSH, New Zealand's leading social media agency.

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