Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Lies and Calls for Attention

First read this about the woman who faked a pregnancy in her blog.

Now, I have a Twitter account. Why do I have only 83 followers most of whom are marketing to me?

Perhaps it is because I am honest. No that can't be it. For those who know you know Zeta Is NOT my real name but rather the pseudonym I have used for almost 25 years now for the gaming community and to avoid contract conflicts when I wrote for a living.

Perhaps it is because I write nothing interesting. Well, I think it is interesting.
So THERE.

Perhaps, just perhaps it is because I feel no need to validate my existence by asking for attention from strangers. Hmm maybe.

The Internet is a wonderful tool, but there is a lot of misinformation out there put up, in many cases, by misinformed people. Then there are cases like this. People who want to be the center of attention who want to be popular for some reason in their sad lives they cannot accept that the world does not revolve around them.

So they seek attention from strangers. Perhaps she started out meaning to tell a story and it became a lie inadvertently. Perhaps she had tried like so many others to make her voice and opinion heard and was ignored. I tend to believe the latter.

People reached out to her and wanted to help her because hers was such a tragic story. It tugged heart strings and pushed hot buttons on a volatile topic in the United States. Unfortunately, it was also all a lie. The issue was pro-life vs. pro-choice. The problem is she has now done more harm to the pro-life movement than good. She has shown that she was willing to lie to get her point across. What is worse people listened to the lie and not to the truths told by others, they feel betrayed.

This is the danger of buying into information on the Internet that comes from a non verifiable and non accountable source. What is sadder it is also a product of what has seems to have become the American Culture. The desire to be a celebrity. Not to be an expert in your field, not to be good at what you do, not even to be a good member of the local community who helps others. Just to be famous. Drama and tragedy mean more to people than good works and reality. Perhaps it is time that we woke up and listened to the person next to us and helped our neighbors out instead of worrying about who Brad Pitt was seen with last week. That would set a better example for our communities of what is really important.

1 comment:

Julie said...

The world doesn't revolve around me? Seriously, totally agree -- the fact that last week all news pointed to Michael Jackson is proof that we have lost our collective minds.