In a previous post, I jokingly argued that "Hotel California" is about the harmful effects social media. In the post-script of that article, I claim:
Alternately, perhaps the fact that a song from 1977 can be made to align with modern concerns about social media suggests that we need to think more critically about which problems with modern society are actually caused by technology and which are merely a superficially novel expression of pre-existing tendencies.
I haven't entirely changed my mind about this, but I'm starting to think that there might be more to explore here.
To start with, what's the song really about? Obviously many different analyses exist; it's probably up there with "American Pie" in the "songs that people like to speculate about" category. But one obvious observation is that it can be read as criticism of the emotionally isolating/alienating aspects of the rockstar/celebrity lifestyle.
Hopefully I don't need to spell this out in great detail, but for those who need convincing:
- At the time, California was (and continues to be) strongly associated with the entertainment industry (music, film/Hollywood, celebrity culture, and so on).
- Spending a lot of time in hotels (and traveling in general) is strongly characteristic of the touring or jet-setting celebrity lifestyle. The hotel setting underlines a sense of detached, aimless drifting through the world, lacking a true home and the stable relationships associated with it.
- Other elements of the celebrity lifestyle featuring prominently include alcohol, partying, superficial relationships and "fake friends," an emphasis on appearances, conspicuous consumption, etc.
- The "you can check out any time you like" line refers to "checking out" in the sense of disengaging emotionally from one's surroundings.
- The song was written and performed by rockstars (from California, of course) presumably familiar with this lifestyle. At least one other Eagles song - "Life In The Fast Lane" - touches on similar topics.
How does this relate to social media criticism? Well, you could argue that one problem with social media is that it exposes "normal people" to certain social ills that used to be reserved for celebrities. Concerns like maintaining a "personal brand," attracting followers, faking friendly interactions for clout, conspicuous consumption, and highly posed/touched-up/widely-distributed photoshoots used to be the exclusive domain of the rich and famous. But now an increasing number of people are exposed to this pseudo-celebrity lifestyle and all its concomitant alienation, without the benefit of actually being rich and famous. It's not just me saying this; the idea of parasocial relationships, originally coined in 1956 to discuss mass media and celebrity, has recently gained substantial traction in discussions of online content creation and fan communities.
So the unintended parallels between "Hotel California" and modern tech-skeptic discourse arguably reflect something substantive about the "problems with social media," in a roundabout way. Maybe. Not sure if I buy this argument, it's just something that occurred to me as an interpretation of my original satirical article that's a bit more charitable to the tech-skeptic position.
In conclusion, "Hotel California" is a land of contrasts. Thank you.