The characters in Brad Paisley’s “Online” music video have very different personalities when they are offline as compared to when they are online. In the real world, the characters are the stereotypical losers. The main character is an overweight, balding, middle aged man who still lives with his parents. He works as a pizza delivery guy, drives an old, beat-up car, and is obsessed with Sci-Fi, and has asthma. Essentially, in real life, he is the guy that women scoff at and men bully. However, when the character logs on to the computer and enters his online life, he has a completely different personality. He portrays himself through his MySpace page as being tall, handsome, and rich. While in reality, this guy is ashamed to even say hi to the girl who lives next door to him, online he has no problem chatting with two or more women at a time. The character has an entirely different personality online, and is able to portray himself as the kind of person that he has always wanted to be.
Another part of the video that I found funny but also realistic is when the main character’s dad, played by William Shatner, goes online and creates a MySpace profile and makes friends with some “chesty” women, as his wife calls them. This was funny to me, because nowadays more and more older people are starting to make online profiles on sites such as MySpace and Facebook. This is because technology is becoming more and more widespread, and things such as online networking which were once considered to be for younger people are becoming more acceptable for all ages.
My favorite part of the music video is at the end when the guy ends up going outside as his dorky self in his band uniform but ends up walking away with the girl next door. I thought this was a really subtle way to show that even though you may be “so much cooler online”, it is important to remember who you really are and not be ashamed of that.
I think it is safe to conclude that the ability to communicate/interact online gives people a lot more confidence. This might be because they don’t have to interact with people face to face, which allows them to be more outgoing because they aren’t worried about being judged. Whatever the reason, chatting online allows people to express themselves to other people in ways that they probably would not if they were offline. In some ways, this is a good thing, as it allows people to break out of their shell and gain self esteem through being able to communicate with others without inhibitions.
In this week’s reading, Postman says “technology in providing Americans with convenience, comfort, speed, hygiene, and abundance was so obvious and promising that there seemed no reason to look for any other sources of fulfillment or creativity or purpose.” The music video “Online” shows one of the ways that technology is providing people with fulfillment. You could say that being able to communicate with other people and create an online persona fulfills the need that some people have to connect with others. As can be seen in the video, some people may be too shy to connect with people in real life, but they become a different person online and are able to connect with others that way.
Overall, I think that there is nothing wrong with what the character in the video did, which was to create an online persona much different from who he truly was. However, I think it is important for people to remember that while disguising who you truly are while online may seem harmless, there are people who use false identities on online networking sites and use them to take advantage of others. While these people may seem trustworthy, it is really difficult to judge people’s character through their online profiles. For this reason, it is important to not get too caught up in online identities and to be careful about what kinds of information you do share with others online.
Erica,
It’s funny how the characters dad ended up making a myspace account to meet women. I still view myspace and facebook as a social network for young adults, and that as one gets older they will eventually grow out of it. However this is not the case at all! All of a sudden I am noticing a bunch of my friends parents getting a facebook. What’s funny is that they actually use it! They have different albums, numbers of friends, and leave comments all over their child’s page making sure their day was ok. Because the online social network is becoming so big it is not a surprise that more adults are getting involved, pretty soon it’s going to be the norm to have my grandma leave me a facebook message saying “I love you!”