The internet and Reality television have made some things just too damn easy.
In the past, it took true diligence, good luck, and undeniable talent in order to make it big. For every Hemingway, there has been six or more authors relegated to obscurity by poor luck, poor ideas, or any combination thereof. For each Streep there was a Snooki who was gratefully left behind. Fame was a commodity which was hard to come across, and it had to be earned.
The Internet has changed that. Now, any monkey with a keyboard or a webcam can self -publish their thoughts and ramblings for the entire world to consume. This has led to an over abundance of both material and opinion which is freely available to anyone with a search engine and serious time to kill. Now the insignificant internal ramblings of a self-obsessed narcissist are simply a mouse-click away. Reality TV and YouTube have pushed the scariest of the lot into the immediate public view, and their terrifying personalities and thoughts have tagged along for the ride.
When the veneer of mystique is stripped away from ones private lives and thoughts we quickly realize that the facade that is perpetuated through marketing and promotion are a sort of prestidigitation that transforms a completely inconsequential persona into a publicity generating machine. Reality television has just reinforced this concept, and social media has given an easy outlet to the mess in that would normally be contained in their own heads. The blogsphere has decided to favor twitter rankings over fact checking; shamelessly aiding the fame addicted and their cliques drive their presence into the frontal lobe of the ever willing public.
When these personas manage to spill into the forefront of public view, they consume attention with a ravenous hunger which grows steadily. As their popularity increases, so does their self-importance. They suddenly come into possession of a level of knowledge much superior to yours, as evident by their ability to have their incoherent ramblings published by the beast that was formerly known as the free press which now serves as a launching pad for the next big thing.
With Lady Gaga professing an innate understanding of the US Military to forward her opinions on DADT, to Tom Cruise's achievements in the pursuit of psychiatric treatments we should all be better informed regarding the current state of the world around us. I am heartened to know that my congress takes advice from a lady in a meat suit. If Jim Carrey's wife says that immunizations cause autism, I should listen to her; polio be damned. A baby's first steps are overrated anyways.
The line between fact and fiction grows thinner by the day. "News" sites pop up on the web each day, each with their own political flavor and variety of the truth. The media consuming public is ill served by these panderers of propaganda, which often disguises the real truth behind a cloak of self-righteousness and ego driven political beliefs. When Michael Moore is the most unbiased contributor they have, you just know the Huffington Post isn't walking a straight line. I would be better served getting my news from the gentleman in LA with the hot dog suit on.
As I learned at a young age after visiting the local military recruiter, Caveat Emptor applies to nearly everything in life. Never believe anything you read until you can fact check it.
Especially if it comes from a chick in a g-string with a meat bra.
No comments:
Post a Comment