To begin with, although this music video has its humorous moments, I mostly found myself depressed by the messages it was sending.
The video followed the “life” of a less fortunate man as he trudged through his daily activities of delivering pizza, wishing he was someone else (what a surprise that that someone else was none other than Brad Paisley…) dealing with the disadvantages of living at home (STILL) and unabashedly shielding himself from potential human contact with an apparently sweet and eagerly interested neighbor-girl.
Offline, the man is balding, short, chubby, nerdy (he’s into sci-fi), drives a beater car, inexperienced when it comes to women and sex, and has no skills that he views as socially acceptable. Oh, and to top it off, his room is in his parents basement and he plays the tuba and chats on-line between bouts of asthma. Sad!
Online is, of course, the bipolar opposite. He goes from short to tall, chubby to having six-pack abs, driving a beater to driving a Maserati, being inexperienced to just plain mysterious, and of course he’s ridiculously loaded and has skills. Because girls only like boys who have skills, right?
I am sure this is an accurate, though unfortunate, portrayal of how many people do use the internet. Paisley clearly demonstrates the freedoms of self-expression allowed by such online features like chat rooms, myspace, facebook and so on. Postman discusses the abandonment of social and symbolic traditions, and I think this is applicable here. This free space for self-expression dissipates the confining roles of our social traditions, giving individuals an opportunity to reinvent how they express, introduce and act within themselves. In some ways, this new opportunity to develop the definition of self is wonderful. In example, I have a number of friends who I actually have only truly gotten insight into their lives and their feelings via the Internet. Poems they post, the music they choose to place on their profile or the way in which they describe themselves transcends any previous lines of traditional introductions. What we feel comfortable expressing on the Internet is not always what we may feel comfortable approaching in person. However, as in this video, this opportunity can be misused in the form of misleading others about your true self. Some people use the Internet to create the selves they wish they were, or even to release a portion of themselves they deem unacceptable in the social environment they exist in.
What I found frustrating about the music video was that the end, in which he embraces who he is and goes for the girl (the neighbor girl, not someone from online) and goes of marching down the street- playing the tuba, seems so unrealistic. Are we supposed to believe that by pretending to be something we’re not online is going to suddenly provide us with a relevation and send us right back to who we were really- loudly and proudly?
Even with the “happy ending”, I still found the overall message of the video disconcerting. The guy wants to be Brad Paisely, because apparently Paisely has what society considers to be the most acceptable and admirable, quite the opposite of the poor, chubby, balding guy. When he realizes he can’t be him, he decides to just be himself- which involves the very “uncool” act of tuba-ing it up down the street while being fawned over by the dorky neighbor girl. Well if you can’t be cool….just be happy being uncool? Everyone will love you for being the short, chubby, balding guy we poked fun at earlier in the video- but now you’re surrounded by Taylor Swift and Kelly Pickler……
Media accessible via the Internet, and communication via cyberspace in general, affects the way people perceive themselves and societal standards. It affects the way we interact, the goals and standards we set for ourselves, affects the way we judge others and ultimately affects the quality of our life.
This video is the same one I reviewed and found the physical characteristics that were portrayed as being “desireable” and “undesireable” to be a social/cultural perception. In other cultures, the definition of attractiveness could be defined differently than what is conveyed in this video. It speaks volumes about not only online representations/identities but also about our own cultural lenses.
The “happy ending” is also construed to these cultural expectations because we expect the man to break free of his error in thinking he could have a relationship with a “beautiful” woman and ultimately find happiness with his social equal, “the dorky neighbor girl”. Our own cultural expectations have placed stress on individuals to feel as though they have to represent themselves when possible as possessing these physical “attractive” characteristics. I wonder if the potential consequences of online anonymity would be less negative if our cultural was more diverse in our definitions of beauty? What do you think?