Can You Know Someone's True-Self Online?

Growing up always knowing social media, my generation was always told to be skeptical of people on the internet. Do not trust people online? You cannot really know if they are telling the truth. Ready Player One voices these sentiments. The characters are very careful about putting their personal information in the system. This precaution is commonly taken by many people today. You never put your social security number or bank account information anywhere online. We are well aware of hackers.

Artemis reiterates to Parzival multiple times “you don’t even know me” (186). In the OASI anyone can be anyone. You can change your appearance and have a different online persona than in real life. AS Artemis explains to Parzival “you only know what I want you to know. You only see what I want you to see” (186). Ultimately, and usually rightfully so, we have been taught to regard people you meet online or websites you visit with mistrust. In this scenario, Artemis and Perzival have the added challenge of being competitors; all the more reason for them to not trust each other. However, Perzival breaks away from the internet-smarts that we all have been ingrained with by falling in love with Artemis online.

Artemis points out that he has never met her in real life and does not really know who she is as a person. The question arises as to whether or not you can really get to know someone online? Perzival’s actions and words seem to argue that you can actually get to know the core values and desires of a person, for “in the OASIS, you could become whomever and whatever you wanted to be” (57). In the OASIS, people cannot see your physical appearance and they recognize that people rarely ever look like their avatars. The OASIS eliminates first impressions based off appearance. When you speak to someone, you cannot judge them based off standards of beauty or attractiveness. What is attractive to Perzival about Artemis is her mind, not her body. Therefore, in the OASIS people can overcome their physical insecurities and reveal their actual personality and thoughts. Feasibly, your true self can be revealed online especially for tose “painfully shy, awkward kids, with low self-esteem and almost no social skills” (30). For people like Perzival, these are hindrances to forming relationships, expressing interests, and communicating with others. Although, Perzival is insulating himself in the OASIS, he feels less alone in it than he does in real life. In reality, he was bullied at school. In the OASIS, he can study and overcome bullying. He can make friends in the OASIS and fall in love with a girl.

However, Artemis makes a valid point about meeting someone in real life. Perzival cannot simply base his love for Artemis just on his interactions with her avatar. She is completely correct in stating that she can hide things easily form him and he would never find out unless he met her in person. While his love for her is more genuinely founded in her conversation and personality, he cannot simply translate his emotions for her online to real life. In real life, he may find that she is completely different and put on a false persona. Perhaps if they met in person, they would both be too shy or awkward to connect and communicate in the same easy manner that they do online. The answer to the question is that you cannot know who someone truly is just online. A person’s online personality can reveal a lot. You can learn about something that you otherwise may not have found out in real life. However, the downside and dangerous alternative is that the person hides something very important about themselves. You are who you want to be online. And sometimes this can be the complete opposite of who you actually are in person.