No one wants to talk about anything anymore unless its controversial.
You know its true.
Ever since the rise of the 24-hour news channel in those months post 9/11 we have steadily turned into a culture continually on the hunt for the most shocking, the most funny, the most outrageous headline. Remember when we got news once a day on the TV? Now we have countless news channels pumping out content every second of every hour, and the world just isn’t full enough of actual news to fill up the vacuum. I can’t see this as an ‘evolution’ in any true sense of the world. This headline buffet has changed us, and not for the better.
The only way bloggers can get pageviews anymore, unless they already belong to the big cliques, is to linkbait, exaggerate or outright lie. Its almost enough to make me feel sorry for bloggers who are out there giving their all to try make a living off blogging. It just isn't possible for all those people to make enough money to live on trying to throw words at the Universe. Unless you can post something controversial enough to get picked up by HuffPo, you might as well stand in your underwear and talk to yourself in the mirror. You’ll get more reaction.
Hell, the most pageviews this blog ever got was when I wrote a post about my kid punching another kid in the nuts. Of all the things I've written of which I'm proud, that was the story that got picked up by a major news outlet, for crying out loud.
As a blogger what I find particularly sad about this Headline Culture is that that not only are there important bits of news out there we should probably know about but are getting buried under EXTREME!HEADLINES!, but there are bloggers and writers out there who are truly at the top of their craft who aren’t getting nearly the appreciation they deserve. I don’t think I’m talking about myself, because although I wish I was a great enough writer to be included in the ranks of those I consider to be real writers (like Vardra, Adrienne, Veronica or Michelle, to name a few), I don’t think that I am. (I’m OK with that. I’m not a big deal on the internet, maybe, but I’m a Really Big Deal to my kids and my folks and my husband and the people who pay me to get stuff done.)
All this nonsense being passed off as “news” really distracts us from paying attention to important pieces of information. Things like the controversy over fluoridation in our water systems and the negative health effects that can be associated with high levels of fluoride; things like PRISM and our government's defense of the indefensible; like the dozens of cases of police brutality or misconduct that occur in communities just like yours and mine on a daily basis. “The Trayvon Martin case has been a headline forever, but there are black kids killed by cops every damn day and either no one reports it or no one pays attention to it if it does happen to make the paper. No one raises an eyebrow over rape anymore unless it is committed by or against a celebrity.
Face it guys, the internet is both amazing and a shithole.
Am I the only one who's exasperated by this crap?
