AOL Journals: Pixel Pusher

Man, I don’t know what, but this article in the Post about the emerging class of public citizens (or "publizens") really, really bothers me. I’ve been in a Pekar-sized funk since I read it, tossing and turning and just kicking stuff in the road. Something between the lines of the story makes me sad and upset, makes me wanna just yell "NOT FAIR." Here’s a key quote:

“In varying degrees, publizens grow up, fall in love, choose a college, drink too much, do good deeds, experiment with drugs and sex and kinky hairstyles, sit for tattoos, create art, enter 12-step programs, get hitched, give birth, go to work, file for divorce, die and do just about everything else in public. They build Web sites, produce blogs and star in reality television shows. They use new technologies to live in plain sight and newer technologies -- fancier phones, Web cams, digital video programs -- are being created so they can do just that.

Publizens welcome the klieg lights -- the glare, the heat, the exposure. British papers reported recently that Marie Osmond's teenage daughter Jessica put up a MySpace page revealing her sexual proclivities and listing Adolf Hitler as a hero. Young people have been kicked out of college for exhibiting pictures of themselves carousing.”

Hey, look: I work at AOL. I have a blog here. I’ve had a blog outside of AOL for two years, and I’m all up in MySpace and Friendster. My personal blog helped me get this job and a number of freelance writing gigs. I use Craigslist to hitch rides and furnish my apartment, and I’ve made friends of varying degrees through social networking sites.

So I feel like I’m pretty qualified to tell you this: The person you see online is NEVER the real person. It doesn’t matter what they look like, what bands they like or how well they write an e-mail – real life defies digital interpretation every time.

Imagine only being able to see in two dimensions – no depth perception, period. Now imagine, as a person that only sees in two dimensions, that you see a hand, resting on its fingertips against a windowpane. All you would see are five flesh-colored blobs -- with no understanding of the hand behind the glass. What else could tie those blobs together? Anything your imagination could conceive, but not the truth.

The human imagination is powerful, unstoppable, and totally silent. It takes past experiences and physical evidence and creates all kinds of crazy flying machines based on paranoia, hopes, dreams, fears – and our deepest, unarticulated desires. The scary thing is, we don’t even know we’re doing it.

Seeing the hand behind that glass – or meeting an online acquaintance in person – can be a terrible shock. It’s never what you expect, and it’s invariably a letdown. No human being can meet all your invisible expectations – and no human being deserves to be judged by your electronically enabled prejudices.

That person sucking on the beer bong in the photo online, five years before they applied to be your nanny? She may have changed completely. As a D.C. resident, I can tell you that the conservative political staffers are always the biggest freaks. Putting your life on the Web, sharing yourself scantily clad or your thoughts about Dashboard Confessional or party photos or whatever else you want doesn’t let the rest of us know you any better at all … it just gives people more pads to launch their imaginations from.

Interestingly enough, none of my closest friends have MySpace profiles at all. I’m the Internet guy in my group. All my Myspace friends were friends in college, live in other cities, or are people I met out one night. My best friend since kindergarten, my neighbor/roommate – they’re all real, fully functioning people whose popularity doesn’t get measured through Web metrics. They don’t have “friends” lists or blog traffic or Webcams. They just live and love, and that’s enough for me.

|  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this

• #6 Comment from arulraj1985 
  2/13/08 12:00 PM | Permalink

  
  Head first java:
  
  http://booksforpeople.blogspot.com/2008/01/head-first-java.html
  
  Software Engineering-Roger S Pressman:
  
  http://booksforpeople.blogspot.com/2008/01/software-engineering-roger-s-pressman.html
  
  Operating System Concepts-Abraham Silberschatz:
  
  http://booksforpeople.blogspot.com/2008/01/operating-system-concepts-abraham.html
  
  The Complete Reference collections:
  UNIX:
  
  http://booksforpeople.blogspot.com/2008/01/unix-complete-reference.html
  
  C# :
  
  http://booksforpeople.blogspot.com/2008/01/c-complete-reference_20.html
  
  SQL:
  
  http://booksforpeople.blogspot.com/2008/01/sql-complete-reference.html
  
  JAVA:
  
  http://booksforpeople.blogspot.com/2008/01/java-complete-reference.html
  
  C:
  
  http://booksforpeople.blogspot.com/2008/01/c-complete-reference.html
  
  C++:
  
  http://booksforpeople.blogspot.com/2008/01/c-complete-reference_18.html
  
  RedHat Linux:
  
  http://booksforpeople.blogspot.com/2008/01/javascript-complete-reference.html
  
  Those are links for eBooks..
  
  For more books visit http://booksforpeople.blogspot.com
• #5 Comment from maturedating 
  10/15/07 10:16 PM | Permalink

  AGREE.
  
  
  Anyone wants to meet a young, sexy and passionate mature single friends? Check out SeniorWoo.com! This successful and user-friendly site caters to 50 plus active singles and their admirers. Free to create a simple and interactive profile. Free to browse and contact hundreds of members in your area.
• #4 Comment from makesvisible 
  7/31/06 4:06 PM | Permalink

  I have to agree with the post here. There's something to be said for the term publizen.  
  
  I live in New York City and a few days ago while walking down the street I saw three 20-somethings outside of a cafe taking really uneventful pictures of each other with their cameraphones.  As I passed I heard one girl say "You better send that to me, I totally need a new myspace picture." I had to chuckle.
  
  I myself and under 30 and and use the internet for email, research/reference, and sometimes entertainment.  Although not all users are the same, and some people just have more time on their hands than others, what makes it necessary to document every detail, from the personal to the mundane, in some individually-branded advertisement on the internet?  You are just asking to be judged by displaying all of your personal information and social interaction for all eyes to see! How narcissistic is it to assume that people are THAT interested in your business anyway?  Who cares if you're hearing a song by the Dust Brothers right now, what does it have to do with the article, and shouldn't it speak for itself?  What does it matter to document your mood, what you're listening to, the time, and your emptiest thoughts on your blog that you'd be lucky if someone actually read?  
  Maybe if we used all the time spent on blogging to actually live our lives in the real world, they would be all that more interesting.
  
  
  
  
• #3 Comment from dougsbabygirl31 
  7/25/06 7:20 PM | Permalink

  I agree. However, even though I have a blog, I write about all that is happening in my life and although I am a bit old to go around getting drunk and screwing every man in sight, I honestly don't think that I would blog about that. As usual, people are trying to stick others in a hole and label them. I defy labels. I am me. Tawnya
• #2 Comment from dontharshmymello 
  7/25/06 4:50 PM | Permalink

  This is funny, 'cause I've found just the opposite -- I've found that people in real life are *exactly* like they present themselves online -- not necessarily what they're into, but their overall tone, manner, personality, sense of humor, intelligence, whether or not we'd get along, stuff like that. It might have to do with where I hang out online -- mostly message boards about topics I'm interested in, not social or dating spaces, where I guess it's more likely that people might try to misrepresent themselves.