Introduction
Do not judge a book by its cover, a phrase that is usually said when someone is warning of incorrectly misinterpreting the personality by the look. If rephrasing this saying to match the technology age, it could be said the presented cover is the one people want to be judged by. Substituting cover with profile, the current situation in the world of cyber communication becomes clear and logical. The current trend in the internet today, that began as a form of interest communities and later turned into a cultural phenomenon, is social networking. This paper implements semiotic analysis to research MySpace site of Tila Tequila- an internet celebrity, a model, singer, actress and a TV host, available at www.myspace.com/tilatequila.
Social Networks
Social networks as a term is known for more than a decade, but relative to online communities it was actively used for the last two or three years. The idea is not new in principle, as any community of users can be called a network, even if it does not have the possibility to show “list of friends”. In the wide variety of all social networks, MySpace is distinguished by its personalization options. The user profile can become more than a place to communicate or put some photos and videos, it becomes the “cover” or the package that presents the social identity of that person. This package substitutes profession, social class, education and other factors that were used as a determination of the identity long ago. If prior to the internet boom the decoration of the room represented personality, that was judged by a couple of friends, now the personality is represented by an internet profile and judged by millions of users. As these profiles became elements of culture, and have “signs” represented as profiles’ appearance, thus they can be analyzed and accordingly interpreted.
Semiotic Analysis
Every science branch has its purpose that is created to explore and explain specific facts. Semiotic analysis, in particular explains such facts which are accumulated with observation. These facts form signs which can be translated with the purpose of getting correct interpretation and accordingly information that initially is “locked”. If transferring this explanation to internet profile, the interpreted information unlocks “the personality”, and as formulated in the article The Semiotics of Home Décor, by Eugene Rochberg-Halton “The self can only be known by the signs it gives off in communication” (116) This self is especially locked when referring to online social networks, e.g. when writing a diary that is purposefully shared, many human real features can be hidden behind the created image. Thus direct interpretation can be wrong as people do not want to be known for who they really are, as much as who they present themselves to be. In the article “What’s in a Package” by Thomas Hine, he states that “The ways, in which people construct and present their personalities, the ways in which ideas are presented and diffused, the ways in which political candidates are selected and public policies formulated.
Tila Tequila
At first it should be mentioned that Tila is a celebrity. A beautiful girl, and a model, therefore the informational load of the site is more visual than meaningful. That means that Tila knows what she is liked for, and accordingly use this factor to raise her popularity. This can be witnessed with numbers of photographs that exploits her physical appearance rather than spiritual. As the site was designed professionally, it could only be assumed that Tila participated in the process of personalization, and all subsequent conclusions can be made according to that assumption. A large theme in the profile is dedicated to the subject of provocation, thus it can said that Tila Does not like following the rules. Taking in consideration her fame, an old Arabic saying that stated figuratively” do wrong, you become known”, in the case of Tia is working perfectly. The previous statement does not mean doing wrong literally, rather than distinguishing herself from the crowd by emphasizing on the words, “bad”, “naughty”, “baddest” and “bitch”. These words, which normally people do not associate themselves with, work as a sign “I’m not like the others”.
The usage of red colors to bring attention is good, however, the diverse difference from ordinary profiles mark the page as a celebrity ad campaign, which goes beyond the limits of communication to merely promote records, books, videos and etc. Another issue that is based on contrasts is contradiction of the blog record about the importance of love – which is rather a cliché, to phrases such as “the baddest bitch on the block”, as you cannot promote the first being the second. However, Tila outlines this contradiction, by presenting a picture of her with different personalities, thus the visitor can only suppose which one is her.
Is that profile really Tila? Probably. The only thing that is definitely true, is that at least, that what she wants the visitor to think.