First of all, I would have liked to embed the topic of discussion, the Brad Paisley video "Online", on this page, but the parent company of his label BMG doesn't allow embedding of their YouTube videos. This was a source of endless frustration to me during my music blogging days, considering one would imagine the point of putting the video online would be to expose the song and artist as widely as possible, but that doesn't seem to be the plan over at BMG. Well played, giant clueless conglomerate!
Back to the main topic at hand, the video, which can be seen here (if you're interested), approaches humorously a phenomenon that nearly anyone who has had any experience with the Internet is familar with. Long story short: someone on the Internet isn't who they say they are. I'd have to imagine this isn't an entirely new phenomenon (I'm sure there were pen pals out there who engaged in exaggeration, or maybe even telegraphs from hot nineteen year old blondes to lonely gold miners), and for certain the art of the hoax goes back at least as far as Jacob holding wool over his arm to trick his father into delivering the familial blessing to the wrong son, but the hypereality of the Internet does allow for the creation of alternate personae to a much greater extent. While in the Paisley video this is played for laughs (the band geek eventually realizes love was just across the street all along), in real(er) life, the stakes can be much larger, as "trolling" has reached destructive and occasionally fatal height. Several years ago, Jason Fortuny ran a scam on Craigslist drawing in men with a "Casual Encounters" promising a sexual encounter. Fortuny then posted the responses he received on the Internet embarrassing those drawn in by his ruse. More tragically, in the case of Megan Meier, a teenage girl committed suicide after being taunted by an adult neighbor and her friends who created a fake Myspace profile to lure the girl in. There's a very real extent to which no one who you meet on the Internet can be trusted, regardless of the context, which must creep over into the rest of our lives. Who can be trusted when there are multiple playing fields of engagement, all with different rules and standards?
This reminded me of the double edged sword of progress that Neil Postman alludes to in chapters two and three of Technopoly. To the extent that anyone who dares question the overwhelming positive nature of technological advances is dismissed as a "Luddite", our society has by and large decided that all technology is good, all the time, which clearly isn't the case. While a five minute long country music video doesn't begin to address the ramifications of this crisis of identity, what does it mean for society when people can change like chameleons at will, some to have fun, but some with malicious intent? When we have masks for every different forum, do we lose track of who we actually are?
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I really liked the points you made in your blog, especially about how our society seems to have come to a point where we view all technology as good all the time. It's really scary just how easy it is for people to pretend to be someone they're not online. You brought up the case of Megan Meier, which I thought was a great (although tragic) illustration of this point. Here we have a young girl who is tricked into falling in love with a "boy" online, only for it to be the mom of one of her friends trying to find out if she's spreading rumors about the woman's daughter. In the end, they tell Megan "the world would be better" without her, and so she kills herself. And after all this, the judge is ruling to aquit the mom! This just goes to show what a sick, twisted world we sometimes live in. On a much lighter note, your point that people may pretend to be someone they're not online reminds me of a t-shirt I once saw. It said: "I may not be a 17 year old girl, but I play one online."
ReplyDeleteDan what a great post! I have always found that video to be both hilarious and tragic because we know that it is far too close to reality. It is alarming how many people have been taken advantage of via the Internet. You also make good points when you mention Jacob holding the wool over his arm. This reminds us that while the Internet can serve as a tool of deceit,long before it people were creating the same lies and wearing those masks right in front of our eyes, no CMC needed. So while I completely agree with you and heed the many cautionary tales…….we also have to take responsibility for who we let into our lives……both in real time and cyber time!
ReplyDeleteI really like your comments and thanks for posting the link as I've never seen this video. Reading your comments and others makes me realize how tempting it is to create a persona online that doesn't match up but something else occured to me watching the video and that is that that the character trying to emulate Brad Paisley is trying to be someone who is also a "persona" carefully constructed by those who stand to profit from his success. Bringing it down to me personally I guess we all try to "put our best foot forward" even in a face to face situation but with computer mediated communication it is much more alluring.
ReplyDeleteI liked your examples of how the internet has hurt people, even as young as teenagers. I have a cousin who is 13 and her parents have told her that she is not allowed to get a myspace page until she turns 18, hopefully myspace will be long gone by then, but this new age of internet fraudulency has made people get more strict on how they let the ones close to them interact with the internet. I remember when I was young and we first got AOL and my parents had to continually remind me that I wasn’t allowed to enter chat rooms. Now at the age of 23 I still try to avoid them because I never know who I am talking to.
ReplyDeleteI had never heard about Jason Fortuny before, although the media has talked a lot about the myspace hoax. It is sad that the effects of the internet can be tragic and have proven to cause a lot of harm. In the case of the myspace hoax I sadly do not think this will change things in the future. There is no way to prevent this from occurring, in my opinion, other than creating rules for your children regarding their internet usage.
ReplyDeleteYou were right when you point out that the music video only depicts the falsities of the internet as being amusing and things to laugh about. But then again, it is a music video and a lot of the things we watch are meant for entertainment rather than to depict morals