The main character of the video for Brad Paisley’s “Online” is a pizza delivery boy who lives in his parents’ basement and concocts an elaborate online persona that is almost completely antithetical to himself. His online identity is tall, handsome, rich, drives a fancy car, models for GQ, and is completely comfortable with women in a way that pizza boy is obviously not (judging by his inability to interact with his female neighbor until the end of the video).
It’s a bit of a cliché in the internet age but, like many clichés, it is based on truth. Personally, I know a guy who has a completely different personality online than he does in reality. He definitely represents himself differently in cyberspace. I think everyone does it to some degree. What overweight person hasn’t described themselves as “average” on a website? How many people exaggerate their education level or job position on myspace, or purposefully select photos that make them look their best while discarding those that do not portray them favorably? How many people on personals sites have years-old pictures of themselves instead of current ones? Practically everyone fibs a little when it comes to representing themselves online.
It’s no wonder this occurs. Given a chance to describe ourselves in any way we wish, in an anonymous, consequence-free environment, the temptation to lie is just too great. Much like movies or television can give a biased view of an issue by accentuating one side while downplaying the other, we can promote our positive features (or invent new ones entirely) while completely omitting our faults.
There are those who take this to extremes, like middle-aged men pretending to be teenage boys so they can chat with middle-aged men pretending to be teenage girls. The Dateline NBC “To Catch a Predator” reports are another enlightening example. Many of the men they catch soliciting sex from underage girls are semi-respectable members of society. It’s doubtful that many of these men would risk acting on their inappropriate thoughts were it not for the anonymity provided by the internet. The risk would be far too great.
Not all examples are this extreme, of course. Our pizza boy protagonist is simply trying to reach out to a world that he feels cut off from. Our celebrity-obsessed, beauty-conscious culture has created an expectation of attractiveness that he feels he cannot live up to and he consequently has almost no self-esteem. So, he creates what he feels is the ideal man and acts within that persona on the internet. It’s no more than a fantasy, he cannot possibly hope to meet any of his online friends in real life and have them accept him, especially when he’s based their relationship entirely on deception.
At least for him the ending is a happy one. He seems to realize the folly and pointless nature of his online façade and instead decides to take his life into his own hands and take a chance on the girl next door. Though, honestly, it amazes me that he even had trouble with women in the first place. His father is William Shatner, after all.
The ending in the video is a happy one, though the lyrics make no allusion to his realization. It’s ironic that a song about misrepresenting oneself online has to be subtly altered in order to achieve larger acceptance when translated to a visual medium. I seriously doubt that kind of meta-fictional meaning was intended by the video’s director, but it does give us something to think about…
5 comments:
I like how you said, “Given the chance…in an anonymous, consequence free environment, the temptation to lie is just too great.” I would have to agree. I know you mentioned examples of how others portray themselves so differently in cyberspace than who they are in reality…in fact I have a few friends that do the same and had to laugh about how true it is that only the pictures making the person look best are the ones that get posted. …hey I can admit it took at least 10 shots to get the pic posted on my blog!!!
Great Post
Shawna
I decided to watch this video after reading your post. Mostly out of curiosity, but partly because I'm a huge William Shatner fan.
You brought up a lot of good points. I think just about everyone tries to put up their best pictures online, and I've known people who will even lie about their marital status on their MySpace pages. The "anonymous, consequence-free environment" is very empowering for a lot of people, and unfortunately, that's not always a good thing.
The whole online predator thing is a good (but sickening) example of this behavior being taken to extremes. What's even more sad is when the men don't lie about their ages, and they still think that the teenage girls really want to be involved with them anyway. They get so caught up in their fantasies that they lose all sense of right and wrong.
I liked the ending, simply because it showed the girl falling for the guy despite his appearance. It wasn't really part of the song, but it was a nice way to end the video. He finally accepted who he really was, and that's something that a lot of people could benefit from doing.
I too, watched this music video this week and I would agree with all of your conclusions. I especially liked the "truth" that almost everyone fibs on-line, at least in a small way. But it's hard to evaluate such statements as truth or fiction, when so much of our perception is personal. I think you're example of "average" build is what struck me as up for interpretation.
I think back to all of the people I know who represent something quite different on-line, than what's reality (at least in my opinion) and I just have to smile! =) Personally, I think that if you have to represent something you're not to fit into a group that you feel cut-off from, maybe you should re-evaluate your standards?!?
Overall though, I like you're point : "It’s ironic that a song about misrepresenting oneself online has to be subtly altered in order to achieve larger acceptance when translated to a visual medium." It's almost as if, the song is against it's own message...Great Posting!
I think that some degree of Internet exaggeration can be healthy if the exaggeration can help the self esteem or confidence of the person posting the digital white lie. Jason Alexander’s character in the video used his online persona to build up the real-life confidence needed to ask the girl-next-door out. I do not think it is healthy or honest when someone uses the Internet to completely misrepresent themselves. This can be especially dangerous if the deceit is used for malicious purposes. Your reference to Dateline is a fitting example of how someone that seems “normal” can use an online persona to masks darker interests.
I also like how you said, "Given the chance.. in an anonymous, consequence free environment, the tempation to lie is just too great." I also would agree. I know many people who stretch the truth when talking online to a new friend. I feel like we all do some sort of this though because in a way you are telling everyone your interests and feelings on myspace and facebook but through chatting online you really open up. For example, whenever I am instant messaging someone, I tend to always go into more detail than I really would if I was in front of the person.
I also liked the ending and I feel like the video was a fun and honest one. We all know how the internet can be dangerous, especially in chat rooms but it can also open our eyes to other things.
Post a Comment