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July 8, 2011
are people's lives really that boring, or is it the people?
Sometimes I know when readers will doubt the authenticity of a story, but usually it takes me by surprise. Several people asked if it was true that a burglar broke into a car in which someone was sleeping, as if that story was too fantastical to be believed. "It's just hard to believe that all this stuff happens to one guy," wrote one reader.
It's at this point I ask them to reread the post. Nothing happened to me. I was a fourth-party witness to a rumor of a text message. It was someone else's story. It was funny, so I shared it.
I seriously doubt my life is more anecdote-worthy than anyone else's, so this leaves me wondering if people just aren't paying attention to their own lives. If you have half a sense of humor, humorous stories abound.
WE INTERRUPT THIS POST - Right after I wrote that paragraph, Allie texted me the following: "At the DMV. Both men on either side of me are talking on their phones about shooting guns."
Case in point, folks. Being amusing is not really that hard. Pay attention a little.
This is why I scoff at social media being any sort of replacement for Old Media. The very notion presumes that most people are interesting, are intelligent, are paying attention, are worth hearing. They are not. They are trivial, unremarkable, stupid, petty, deathly dull. They have no filter for what is actually interesting. They have absolutely nothing to say, yet they say a lot of it.
Give me higher pay walls, please.
posted by john at 8:58 AM • permalink