What's been cracking me up lately is a spate of primarily print media outlets, which are basically no longer terribly relevant but still eking out an existence, attempting to demonstrate some kind of technological savvy by criticizing popular Internet websites and conventions. When Time Magazine, which, to me, represents a kind of movie-theater-popcorn-grade nutrition in the banquet of news analysis, posts a list of the top 5 overrated blogs, it really feels like grasping at straws. Sorry, Time Magazine, but the reality is that icanhascheezburger.com is entertaining and appealing across a wide swath of culture. Your magazine is not.
And don't even get me started on the multiple articles across news sources on the theme of "Facebook 25 Random Things Lists are stupid." Basically what you're saying is that hundreds of thousands of people are participating in an activity that you don't care for. I spent all the 90s feeling the same way about Seinfeld but that didn't stop people from enjoying an essentially brainless television program. But guess what? I didn't try to look cool by writing editorials about how stupid it was, I just didn't watch it. I didn't pretend that my feelings about that show (and many other popular shows) were news.
This is truly a last ditch effort to try to convince readers that old sources are hip, happening, and have their finger on the pulse of modern culture. Step 1: Identify Internet Trend. Step 2: Dis Internet Trend. Step 3: Profit. Except that I just don't see how you're going to pull step 3 out of your ass.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Sour Grapes
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3 comments:
With the advent of the internet, apparently even the oldest print magazines have decided to have the artistic merit and intellectual heft of USA Today.
Indeed, all too true. Though I will admit to enjoying Seinfeld... I believe it was precisely because it was a nice brainless, shallow show that took no effort to watch. It was a show that was easy to watch with my parents as well, without confronting the harsh realities world about which we disagreed so completely.
Well, I kind of suspect that Time magazine was always geared to eighth graders, but I didn't notice that when I was in eighth grade.
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