The Differences Between Perception and Reality
I was reading Michael Lewis’s amazing essay “Jonathan Lebed’s Extracurricular Activities” yesterday (in The New Kings of Non Fiction) and I realized that this paragraph basically explains how Trust Me I’m Lying happened. Jonathan managed to accidentally see the inherent problems, and inherent manipulations of the market, whereas I saw it in the media, but the point–and the realization–are fundamentally the same.
“Still! That a fourteen-year-old boy, operating essentially in a vacuum, would walk away from a severe grilling by six hostile bureaucrats and jump right back into the market–how did that happen? It occurred to me, as it had occurred to Jonathan’s lawyer, that I had taken entirely the wrong approach to getting the answer. The whole point of Jonathan Lebed was that he had invented himself on the Internet. The Internet had taught him how hazy the line was between perception and reality. When people could see him, they treated him as they would treat a fourteen year old boy. When all they saw were his thoughts on financial matters, they treated him as if he were a serious trader. On the Internet, where no one could see who he was, he became who he was.”
Now that I think about it, this is probably a similar awakening that a lot of “digital natives” went through early on in their lives. It will be interesting to see how this changes our culture and lives.
And isn’t that just fraught with all the various ways life can be lived? When I got online a million years ago (pre-AOL, to date myself), I loved that I could talk with like-minded people about my passions instead of things related to my proximity. That was the first allure. Then, like a lot of people who came up when I did, I had an alias, and built a persona around it, and wasn’t really who I am.
And when the next wave came, the MySpace-and-thereafter era, it was all about being yourself, but obviously a kind of idealized self. I show my selfies of working out at the gym. I don’t show when I slip and eat an entire jar of peanut butter over two days.
And yet, who I *really* am is rarely as interesting in person as it is when you can view my ouevre online, such as it is.
Really interesting thought. Thanks, sir.
Have you read Virtually You? It’s really good and I think your comment hinted at a pretty good understanding of it
http://www.amazon.com/Virtually-You-Dangerous-Powers-E-Personality/dp/0393340546
Ryan
Speaking of “it will be interesting to see how this changes our culture and lives,” can you venture to give us a forecast of what the outcome of this type of behavior/connection will be?
Many people are more “themselves” online than in person. I do not have any issues with that at all. However, they/we should have the capacity to remain ourselves in person. After all, we embody ourselves, do we not? And yet, I see a frightening trend towards digitalizing humanity; which is to say, we are becoming less human in person, and more perfect online. Thoughts?
Hey Ryan – you seem to read a fair bit of finance related literature. What are your general thoughts on the stock market?
Interesting article and thanks for sharing the essay.
When you mention “it will be interesting to see how this changes our culture and lives,” do you think young people will question and change how the media is run?
I disagree with Alfredo because I feel most people who use social media only show the best sides of themselves. However people who write for blogs I feel are authentic both online and in person.
One word that comes to mind after reading your comments on the article: walls. I think the internet allows us to create a persona and establish walls around ourselves. Offline, in public, we have less of an opportunity to create walls; yet, we still do create walls by establishing ourselves into social groups; however on the internet, we can be whomever we want, – we can put up a barricade that deters others from raiding our identity.