So, first of all can we say Seinfeld reunion? I grew up watching Seinfeld and saw that there were two actors from the show on Brad Paisley’s video “Online”. It was George and his mom and in the music video and she played George’s mom just like on Seinfeld. I just thought that was interesting, anyway onto the assignment.
I am a country fanatic so I loved watching that music video. In the video they were comparing a good looking in shape man (Brad Paisley) with an older heavy set man (guy from Seinfeld) and how they are perceived online. At the beginning of the song they show the heavy set man and describe his life by working at pizza hut, driving an old car, living with his parents, he’s short and overweight, has asthma, and likes scifi. They go on to show that he can be a different person online because he can change his myspace profile to anything that he wants. As he changes his profile they start showing Brad Paisley as the new guy. His new profile shows him as tall, in shape, nice car, classy, gets girls, lives in Malibu, been in GQ, rich, and a ladies’ man. The overweight guy begins to have more confidence as he changes his online stats and begins getting attention from girls. I like the end of the video where the overweight guy comes out on stage in a cowboy hat with Brad’s guitar and starts singing and the two girls come up to him and start dancing with him.
People will believe anything that they see online. You can have whatever you want on your myspace profile and people that read it will believe it is the real you. People will stereotype you based on your mediated self. I think it is scary that people will believe anything they see online because that is how young girls who meet people on myspace who end up being older men and then they get themselves into trouble. It is easy to be perceived as anyone you want in your myspace profile just like the guy in this music video. I do not have much on my facebook profile but I am sure that people have their own idea about me based on my mediated self. I know that I do it when I read other person’s about me section on facebook. This music video portrayed how people are perceived online very accurately.
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I watched the Brad Paisley music video also. It was entertaining, but do you think that this double-life online could be harmful to the people who participate in this kind of internet activity, or is it just innocent and carefree fun? I mean, I know this is just a silly music video, but there ARE people who actually use the internet to create a seperate reality: harmful or meaningless?
ReplyDeleteOh, and I recognized George Costanza, but I totally forgot that was his mom on Seifeld too. Good call! hahaha
I agree with you that people will believe whatever they see online, and also that people will stereotype you on your mediated self. I mean you can write whatever you want in your "about me" section on myspace or facebook, and people actually fall for what your saying about yourself. People can google a picture of a model and use it as their own on facebook or myspace to pick up girls. In my opinion, thats just dumb. I mean they may actually believe that the picture is you, and once they want to meet you in person they're going to find out that you're a phony. It just doesn't make that much sense to me that people are so self-conscious about their looks that they have to change themselves online into some supermodel just to pick up the opposite sex. I think the whole online thing can be very dangerous, and people should watch out for those people faking. They could be child molesters, or weird murderers.
ReplyDeleteYea, the reality we try to push on other people online can sometimes be too idealistic, but then again we are relying on a sort of 'fixed message' to try and manipulate perception. The ironic thing is that even though you can change the medium for your delivery, there is always going to be some 'truth' to anything you put down about yourself. Maybe its just what you WANT to be instead of what you ARE, but hey that is still a part of you right?
ReplyDeletehaha and good catch on the Seinfeld reference, I mean who can't spot Jason Alexander a mile away right?
This video is an excellent example of how easy it is possible for people to create a new sense of self online. MTV True Life did a show on it, something about "I live an alternate life online" or something. In the episode, one girl was too scared to play her music live, in front of an audience, but she would play it in some sort of music chat room or forum. She had a huge fan base online, was uber-talkative, confident etc. but in real life she was extremely shy, low self-esteem, and couldn't really assert herself.
ReplyDeleteAnother one of the girls' being followed had her own site where she posted suggestive photos of herself. She used this as a medium to met men, who she would chat with online. I find a few problems with this.... first off, how would this poor girl monitor who views her pictures? Anyone, ANYONE could see them! Also, who's to say the people she's chatting with are WHO THEY SAY THEY ARE! Anyways, I think this music video is a far better representation of what goes online than You've Got Mail.