It is hard to imagine something more worthless than providing commentary and in-depth analysis of something that was worthless to begin with. Such is the case with sports commentators - those who go beyond the play-by-play announcements and the ensuing colour commentary. The real offenders are those who see fit to talk about what the player was feeling or what move he made or what insult some other athletic cipher made towards the first one.
As of this writing (10th June 2012) the BBC article detailing the death of Kenyan minister George Saitoti, longest-running VP in the country's history and a potential presidential candidate has been shared 1,644 times. Compare that to the Yahoo! trends and "top stories" of Manny Pacquiao, Rafeal Nadal, Paul Pierce and other misappropriated uses of talent. There was one significant story about a new U.S. stealth warship sandwiched between the offending stories and a piece on "The Dark Knight Rises." Congrats on prioritising, you dribbling idiots. Pandering to the masses has the side effect of revealing cultural trends; it seems like our interests are about what demands the least of our intellect.
The Web's most popular sites are Google, Facebook, and YouTube, in that order. Go to FB and YT and look at what they're promoting on a regular basis: material that gets an exorbitant amount of hits but that often doesn't qualify as significant. Here's a good judge of whether something matters: it doesn't lose its importance when you ignore it. Sports are only significant when people watch them, the same as shows and celebrities. Politics does not magically lose its value because people don't watch CSPAN or check BBC broadcasts, or choose to fly right past the news tickers in major newspapers to the D-section of the NY Times (that used to be the sports section; I don't read them much anymore as most of my news comes to me digitally).
Is this a pointless rant? Maybe. I can only hope that like-minded people search for material that affirms their disinterest in pop culture. Then they may do likewise and create more resources for the hapless and lost out there who gawk at the Internet in miserable disbelief. Poor souls.
As of this writing (10th June 2012) the BBC article detailing the death of Kenyan minister George Saitoti, longest-running VP in the country's history and a potential presidential candidate has been shared 1,644 times. Compare that to the Yahoo! trends and "top stories" of Manny Pacquiao, Rafeal Nadal, Paul Pierce and other misappropriated uses of talent. There was one significant story about a new U.S. stealth warship sandwiched between the offending stories and a piece on "The Dark Knight Rises." Congrats on prioritising, you dribbling idiots. Pandering to the masses has the side effect of revealing cultural trends; it seems like our interests are about what demands the least of our intellect.
The Web's most popular sites are Google, Facebook, and YouTube, in that order. Go to FB and YT and look at what they're promoting on a regular basis: material that gets an exorbitant amount of hits but that often doesn't qualify as significant. Here's a good judge of whether something matters: it doesn't lose its importance when you ignore it. Sports are only significant when people watch them, the same as shows and celebrities. Politics does not magically lose its value because people don't watch CSPAN or check BBC broadcasts, or choose to fly right past the news tickers in major newspapers to the D-section of the NY Times (that used to be the sports section; I don't read them much anymore as most of my news comes to me digitally).
Is this a pointless rant? Maybe. I can only hope that like-minded people search for material that affirms their disinterest in pop culture. Then they may do likewise and create more resources for the hapless and lost out there who gawk at the Internet in miserable disbelief. Poor souls.
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