THE QUESTION
Find the video for Brad Paisley’s So Much Cooler Online. What can you say about the characters in the music video? How does their personality change online/offline? What conclusions can you draw?
I had never heard of this song before I watched the video on YouTube for the class. The video, and the song, is about a middle aged man who is a "loser". He still lives with his parents, he has a horrible job, and he has no real life social life at all. The main character really wants to be cool, just like Brad Paisley! His only escape of his depressing life is to log-in online, where he fantasizes about living a rock star lifestyle.
When the main character gets online, his world completely changes. As the song title suggests, he finds himself way cooler online. His lifestyle completely changes from bottom to top. His crummy car turns into a Lamborghini, and his trumpet playing turns into rocking out in front of thousands of fans. Instead of socializing with his parents, he can had a three way conversation with gorgeous women! His personality completely changes from what you would call a "nerd", to someone you idolize on the television.
Although when I first watched the video, I thought that this guy was completely dreaming. All of this change was completely in his mind, and he was still the same old nerd living with his parents. The Internet really didn't make him any cooler, it was just a fantasy that the Internet provided him as an escape from reality. Then I thought a little further into why/how this fantasy came true for this guy. There are millions of people who get online everyday to escape their everyday lives. My old roommate used to play World of Warcraft, and he literally spent more time playing that game then he did trying to make friends and have any sort of social life. I didn't understand what was so great about this game that made him such an independent. What I found was, that the Internet and this game let him interact and communicate with people who shared the same interests as him. This game gave him access to hundreds of thousands of people right at his computer that he could virtually hang out with everyday. For him, this game was his social life. Online, he really was one of those cool guys. Obviously the music video exaggerates a little bit. His car really didn't turn into a 200k auto, but he really felt cooler online because of the relationships he had built online.
The Internet has become an alternative for a social life. People have found friends and communities that are substitutes to reality. Instead of hitting the town on a Friday night, people can "hang" with their friends online, where they are just as cool to each other because of their shared values. Although in my opinion, such virtual realities are unhealthy, I am not to judge people who choose this alternative. I believe that life should be lived outside of a computer screen, and that this world has much to offer. But, some people just think they are cooler online!
5 comments:
Hi Bradley,
I'm really glad I got to read your blog this week as you did a different part of the assignment than I did. I chose the movie You've Got Mail and comparing your notes to mine really got me thinking. I don't know if you have ever seen the movie so this may or may not make any sense!
Thinking about the two of them though your comment about your friend enjoying his online social life with his WOW buddies, I wonder how much communication they would having if they actually had to face one another. Would they still continue to be the joking carefree individuals they claim to be on the internet or would they become submissive for fear of being judged?
I have always found online chatrooms to be so interesting because I know personally I'm more apt to say things through the computer without worry than I would to someones face.
That video is pretty funny though.
~Laura
I would have to agree with your comment that “The Internet has become an alternative for a social life,” especially for the younger generation. Just last weekend, I had to bribe my 15-year-old son to get him to leave the computer to go to the lake. Pathetic, eh?
I have found that with my teenage sons, the internet is their only way of comfortably communicating with girls and to them face to face interactions are awkward. But as you stated the internet has become their social life.
Bradley,
I thought it was interesting how you said that the internet has made him feel "cooler" when he is online. I think that by being online the actor in the music video felt more confident overall. He applied it to his real life and became the rock star he had been dreaming about. I think it is kind of sad he had to resort to idolizing a singer but I think that many people idolize the rich and famous and think how cool it would to be them. They seem confident, happy, and well, rich. It is interesting to be brought back down to reality and realize you can have happiness and confidence by just believing in yourself. That is maybe kind of cliché, but a good music video to evaluate.
Thanks,
Bre Kerkvliet
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