I will admit that I have seen this movie about 4 times and every time I get a little chocked up at the end. This time I watched it to try to pay attention to how different they were online compared to how they were in real, every day life. I came to the conclusion that they were actually pretty much the same. They were both a little more friendly online, but over all they seemed to both be nice people in person and online.
The two characters have personal problems in the real world. Tom Hank's character is a big business owner and is putting Meg Ryan's character out of business. She hates him and thinks he is a terrible man. He does not really hate her at all. he doesn't feel good about putting her out of business, but he just thinks of it as business. So some how they meet online and start sending emails to each other. the end up having crushes on each other and they don't even know what the other person looks like, but they really do. When they type online neither of them ever really lies about anything, but they also never really disclose anything that would tell the other person who they are. It is a funny situation that they don't like each other at all in the real world, but on the Internet where they have no business wars they only get to see the other persons personality through words and do not have to see the aggressive business side, they fall in love with each other.
Tom Hank's character ends up finding out who she is with out her finding out who he is. this gives him an unfair advantage and he uses it. he messes around with her a little bit. he sends her emails that kind of get her thinking and maybe confuses her a little bit. They then end up actually liking each other in real life before Tom hanks ever reveals that he is actually her online crush.
This movie is a great movie to look at when looking at how different people can be on the Internet if they want to be. These two characters where pretty much themselves on the Internet, but you could see where if they wanted to be a totally different person they could have been. This as a scary thought and it is why we are having so many issues with websites such as Myspace. People can portray themselves however they want. In this movie she thought for a moment that her online crush might be a murder. This could have been totally possible and she never would have know until she was killed.
The Internet and technology are good things, but they can be used in very harmful misleading ways if we do not place enough security on them. His movie is a very cute, funny, romantic movie, but it should have brought to light a very potentially dangerous thing and that is online predators. I am surprised that our culture has let the Internet get so dirty and I hope that soon we realize what we are doing and make some much needed changes.
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4 comments:
I think you illustrate a good point that people can communicate via the internet and can be very vague with describing themselves and that can create a totally different identity for a person when doing that. I agree with you that internet communication can be a potentially harmful situation to put people in. Security measures should be increased for online chat rooms because so often we hear about negative things that are happening to people in this situation. This movie doesn’t focus on the negative aspects of online chatting, but it gives an idea of the dishonesty or confusion that comes from this form of communication.
Andy its true the internet can mislead us in many different ways. Meeting someone that you’ve chatted with online is a risk people tend to take. Is it a good one? Personally I don’t think so. Then threes situation in which things work out fine and they form a good relationship. Technology is a good thing but it also can be very misleading at the same time.
I agree with your comment of “The Internet and technology are good things, but they can be used in very harmful misleading ways…” I also agree that that many changes need to occur in order for the internet to be a safer place. Sadly enough, as though being a parent is not difficult enough…then there is the worry about a ‘virtual friend’ who ends up being an online sexual predator. We won’t even go into the threat of downloading some malicious virus, which crashes your computer in one click. Another student made a comment that fits perfectly… “It (the internet) is used for too many things that it wasn’t designed for” (Danna). Isn’t that the truth.
I appreciate your insight..
Shawna
That movie had to be one of the most confusing, or rather difficult to perceive, movies that I have watched. Even though I have only watched it once or twice, I have always received the message that the movie was built to resemble an online discussion. I know that seems silly to state, but it is hard to watch -- especially for someone who likes person-to-person contact. All of the dialogue, scenes, and interactions all had a sense of "type...wait for response...response...retype" action. It made me, who is a person-to-person interactor, really anxious to see a more realistic or living film.
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