Tuesday, August 18, 2009
brother freaks out
This viral video was extracted from a series of videos where a kid’s younger brother continually antagonizes his ill-tempered older brother with the goal of recording his inevitable “freak-outs” on camera. In this video, the younger brother decides to sign onto his brother’s online fighting game as a different user and proceeds to secretly “betray” him without him knowing. This viral video is very unique because it reveals both sides of the older brother’s identity. This is a boy who obviously values his online reputation, and feels threatened by the fact that if he does not live up to his online potential he will be hated among the members of his team. By his little brother cleverly sabotaging his game while filming it, he exposes the true real-space social identity of his brother to people that otherwise would have been shielded by the anonymity of the internet. The older brother is someone who obviously values his online social identity, perhaps because he has put time and effort into developing a high rank or status. While playing his online war games he may be perceived as superior or high-class, his younger brother has now revealed his real-space identity which contradicts his brave and fearless façade. As Palfrey explains, “young people tend to express their social and personal identities online,” and if this kid’s real-space identity reflects anything of his online identity, he must be one ruthless COD player.
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This video takes me back to Turkel's "Aspects of the Self", where he speaks about how Stewart, a MUD user, has had no therapeutic outcome through his online social identity. The older brother clearly has temper issues in real life, and has a big problem with logging off the game when his mother begins to yell at him to shut it off. His real life persona is are not being effected in a positive way with the continual use of his online persona.
ReplyDeleteThe appeal of this video is his overreaction to being "betrayed" taking his gaming life way too seriously. It's funny because you wouldn't think that people would react this way. Talking back to the other player and also betraying that character, makes it seem like the players would be in the same "space".
ReplyDelete-Jeany Yang
The greatest part of this video is the way that the brother finds it hilarious to keep angering his older brother by "betraying" him all of the time. It is usually this sort of motivation that gets people online to "grief" other players. Because people can hide behind their digital players there are no real consequences to them doing these things. For instance if the little brother was messing with his older brother in some sport in real life he would be caught and most likely instead of just yelling the older brother would retaliate.
ReplyDelete-Robert Geis
I agree with the writer of this blog, the older brother does get angry because his online alter ego is getting hurt. It makes sense that the older brother has a "split personality" because online no one knows who he really is and he can act however he wants. His little brother hurts this and portrays him differently than how he would portray himself. That is why the older brother gets so mad, because he has worked so hard to acheive a cwertain image and it takes only a few moments to ruin it.
ReplyDeleteThis video reminds me of our class discussions of digital identity. The older brother clearly takes his online identity very seriously. He takes the game to the point of a temper tantrum and screams at the computer as if the player that keeps betraying him can hear him. The funny thing is the other player can actually hear him because the other player is the boy’s younger brother who is videotaping the older brother freaking out. The younger brother hides behind his digital identity in order to have a few laughs and probably to protect himself from the wrath of his older brother. This demonstrates two different ways that people use digital identities.
ReplyDelete-Kyrsten Lew
This video was great. It really shows the aspects of Digital Identity. I think the original poster was right on point when they posted this. The "outraged" brother is clearly accepted online due to his "high rank" and feels comfortable to experiment with himself. It somewhat bumps heads with the idea of aspects of self. The computer does seem to provide pleasure for the young boy, but he is clearly in need of therapy outside that of which the computer can provide for him.
ReplyDeleteThat was AWESOME! This is a concern for our youth. It's interesting how a particular rank within a virtual space can cause such an outburst of behavior in a real space when challenged or threatened. I was initially disturbed from watching this after witnessing this kid's competitiveness toward a video game. Had this been a baseball game or a football game where his own teammate had betrayed him or let him down, I highly doubt his reaction would be this strong. His altar-ego online allows him to threaten to kill his opponent with no immediate repercussions which would never fly in the real world of competition.
ReplyDeleteThis video is truly something only a younger sibling would think of doing. However it does point out and reveal how seriously people take their identity online. To feel so strongly that he was “betrayed” on an online game clearly demonstrates how the two realities of real life and cyberspace are being mixed. Granted for some people all they do is live in their cyber world, which perhaps the older brother does because of his mom saying “I’m sick of hearing this everyday!” In which one has to wonder where the healthy boundary is between the two worlds. Nevertheless both worlds are now both of importance if you want to really get across to the majority of people today.
ReplyDelete- Michelle Erwin
As someone who can relate to online video games, and identity in a second life. I believe that this video is an exemplification of identity, and the impact that it can have on our daily lives. It's obvious that this boy cares greatly about his reputation online, and considering Web 2.0 has brought us to an age where we can be completely different people online, than in real life, this boy is obviously very attatched to his online self. I believe this is somewhat similar to the concept of "YouTube" stars. Normal people who don't have any social significane in the real world, but online, they are regarded as popular, and celebrities. This is why identity and the internet is an important aspect.
ReplyDelete-Ramin Rezvani