The anonymity we have online gives us the freedom to pick and choose how we present ourselves online. In ‘The Presentation of Self in the Online World’: Goffman and the study of online identities, we read about different cases of individual online representations. In this video we take a closer look into long-time internet personality Trisha Paytas, and how the many ways she has decided to represent herself have tainted her image.
If you want to listen to our full discussion, here it is down below!
Discussion lead by me (Lucia Altmann, s3289974), with interesting conversation by Dennis Hooiveld (s3248518) and Bianca Bergami (s3300471) and finally edited by Alec Broekhuizen (s3018598).
I find Trisha such an interesting character. Her ability to survive controversies and get out even more popular is really incredible, especially given what people say about cancel culture etc. Although I sometime find her entertaining (especially in frenemies) I still think that admitting that her content is fake and only for publicity doesn’t really make it better because the way she talks about certain topics is often really damaging. For example, I think that the way she talked about her being trans is really damaging for the trans community because it reinforced stereotypes and ridiculed a very hard process people go through in order to come out and transition.
I definitely have seen a lot of Trisha’s content (willingly or not) throughout the years and like EB said, it really is amazing how she constantly is able to reinvent herself and gain a new wave of popularity throughout everything she has done and been called out for.
There have been many internet celebrities that have started around a similar time and have even collaborated with Trisha, but have not managed to stay in the spotlight as consistently as she has. A big example of this would be Shane Dawson.
I personally think the outrageous statements and actions are all a farce for the publicity, but I do think that she has had a very difficult and tumultuous life which makes the way she acts out not calculated.
I think she doesn’t mean most of the things she does and says, but that she does need what she gets out of it (the money, the fame, the reaction). It doesn’t justify what she does, but it does make it hard to truly criticize her harshly. Kind of like kids pretending to get hurt or have amnesia or whatever because they want to feel loved and know they’re cared for and don’t know how to get it otherwise.
I hope for her and her child’s sake that she finds a better way to cope with everything than act out on the internet.
Thank you for the insightful discussion!