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Hana Salumbides

Professor Lisa Hutton


VSAR 405
11 Dec. 2014
Praise for Your Online Identity
For many of us, the first thing we reach for once we wake up in
the morning is our mobile phones. We check if we have any new
messages, missed calls or received any updates from our chosen
applications. These messages are important because it connects us
with the people we know online, in real life, and even to the world. It
can be argued that most of the people we know are connected online,
most especially if you consider yourself to be a Digital Native
(Prensky 4). May it be in social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter,
or email accounts such as Gmail or university emails, almost everyone
we know have an experience in creating digital or online identities.
Having online identities creates opportunities for us to meet and
connect with a lot of people. It is not uncommon to find work, friends,
and even love online (Rosen). This is why we are very particular with
how we portray ourselves. Similar to how patrons pay artists in the
early centuries to paint them, we post pictures reflecting how we want
society to see us (173). On the other hand, our need to be seen as
unique and interesting can also promote vulgarity and hate (184). This
is the reason why artists find it important to critique how society acts

regarding their social identities. Artists use this opportunity to portray


our need for praise and importance through their art. Artists such as
Jason Nelsons work will be reviewed to show how his game, Nothing
You Have Done Deserves Such Praise critiques societys online
identity.
To understand social media and the online identities we create,
we have to know what contributed to its widespread usage. Lev
Manovich discusses that the web first started as a medium where
corporations and professionals published their content for other to
access. This, however, later evolved to a communication medium
between users where more and more user-generated content got
uploaded online. The portability of new technology, such as cellphones
and tablets, also increased the usage and contribution of online data.
Where once we need to be in a desktop computer to check our emails;
cellphones, tablets, and Wi-Fi networks now enable us to check our
emails wherever we are. Cameras in these devices also enabled us to
become amateur photographers and bloggers. Selfies, photos of pets,
family, and even locations you visit can be taken, edited and uploaded
right on the spot. People do this for the comments, the popularity, and
the likes that they will get. With the availability of portable computers,
were supposed to have more time to converse with real friends and
less time staying at home. This, however, is not whats happening.

Small and Vorgan argues that technology has altered our brains,
increased our social isolation, and reduced our social skills (96).
Social media does not come without any disadvantage for the
users. Rosen says that to become part of a social media circle, you give
up personal information and time to upload, edit, and organize content.
This information can be taken advantage of by companies and hackers
that could use it without the uploaders consent. There is also the
threat of lessening social skills for each generation that becomes
accustomed to this technology. We also have to differentiate between
the anonymous social circles brought together by a similar interest,
and social circles with our real identities. Regardless if these personas
are from websites in use of a username, or social media sites with
peoples real name in it, complements and likes received are both
valued by the user. Caveneys video entitled, Moral Boosting Through
Complements critiques this thought as he goes on complementing the
viewer of the video. This makes us think about the difference of getting
online complements and real life complements. In social media,
however, Rosen adds that it is creating relationships built on weak
social activities such as rumors, gossips, and sometimes stalking (180).
Our need for online social approval and likes is shown through
the interactive game created by Jason Nelson. Even the title of this
game tells you exactly what you will gain from playing it. It is called
Nothing You Have Done Deserves Such Praise and unending praise is

indeed what you will get. It is a flash animation game that looks simple
at first, but it delivers a message behind its humor and satire.
According to the site, it aims to satisfy your complement addiction in
both digital and breathing life. It makes fun of how people live for the
applause, the likes, the scores, awards, and views of their online
identities. Complements given to the digital self are also valued by the
real self. The game is simple; you control a little stick figure through
the world that seemingly goes nowhere and win at the end no matter
what. You score, gain points, and are greeted with explosions and rays
of awesomeness just for passing by. This game represents and mocks
what the Internet is for many individuals.
The plot in the gameif there is even one aside from praising
you is to go through each level, pass by some explosions, and win all
the time. This is similar to the plot of many popular movies we have
today. Michael Bay, the director of the Transformers movie franchise,
often relies on massive explosions as part of his movies. The
protagonist always wins at the end too. These explosions are
unnecessary at times and yet the audience is thrilled because they are
loud, bright, and flashy; seemingly announcing the stick figures
magnificent presence. This game makes you aware that you are being
made fun of as you are constantly bombarded with complements and
showered with bright flashy things.

Making the user feel important is a big aspect of social media.


The likes and comments are but the fuel to the ultimate need of feeling
important and unique. The main motivation to post something online
aside from actually socializing is to gain popularity and feel
important. People who post things online even experience regret if it
does not get enough likes at a given time. Urban dictionary, a userpowered dictionary much like Wikipedia, calls this as post-post
regret. This is the feeling of wanting to take a post down if it did not
receive the desired number of likes in 5-10 minutes. The existence of
this wordironically in a collective intelligence application like Urban
dictionary show how important being acknowledged is for digital
natives. (Battelle and Oreilley) There is this clear need to please and
feel wanted online, to hear complements and become relevant.
Because of this, uniqueness is another aspect of the social media
that users may want to create in their online identities to make them
feel important. Everybody wants to be unique in the Internet because
the Internet is a collection of saturated selves (Turkle, 103). This means
that millions of people are connected online with only the digital media
of text, words, and sometimes video to set them apart from the rest.
Nelsons game contains poemsboth text and verbalthat humor our
need for complements and rewards. Even the spelling used in the
game is left wrong at purpose, characterizing exactly how people in the
internet responds in times of great excitement. Some of the texts in

the game are: Your brain, your fingers are so damn rare and
alarmingly amazing, yer falling so well, so well, your victorious
movements win a sea of dismembered applause and pretend to be
alive in digits. These texts clearly criticize how important we want to
feel when playing a game or even regarding our online identities. It
does not matter if they are complementing how well the little stick
figure is falling in space because a complement given to your persona
reflects back to you. This is the same for sports games. These games
enable us to play the sport without actually breaking a sweat and then
enjoying the same victory of winning against an opposing team.
In conclusion, our social identities are fueled by the need to
receive acknowledgement, praise, and importance. Artists like Jason
Nelson were able to critique how our social identities are dependent on
complements by giving the players of his game too much of it. He
approached this in a humorous way, mimicking the senseless text,
wrong grammar and spellings of some Internet comments. One of the
relevant text in the game is We are hollow and rushing back. The
stick figure is the game seems like he is moving forward but is actually
moving backwards. Technology has definitely connected the world,
however, we pay for this connection with our social skills and
relationships on the line.
CITATION

Batelle, John and OReilley, Tim. Web Squared: Web 2.0 Five Years
On. Digital Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. New York: Penguin Group,
2011. 230-241. Print.
Caveney, Larry. Moral Boosting Through Complements. Youtube.
2010. Video.
Manovich, Lev. The Practice of Everyday (Media) Life Mass
Consumption to Mass <Cultural> Production. 2008. Web.
Nelson, Jason. Nothing You Have Done Deserves Such Praise.
Turbulence. 2013. Online Game.
Pensky, Marc. "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants." Digital Divide. Ed.
Mark Bauerlein. New York: Penguin Group, 2011. 3-25. Print.
Rosen, Christine. Virtual Frienship and the New Narcissism. Digitl
Divide. Ed. Mark Bauerlein. New York: Penguin Group, 2011. 172188. Print.

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