Shocking

It has been quite sometime since I have been compelled to post something. I have been struggling with the recent news story of Tyler Clementi. Maybe it is because I have children attending University away from home for the first time who could be feeling exposed and vulnerable without the safety net of their family. Perhaps it is that one of my kids was the victim of bullying early in high school and I have seen the effects it can have on someone.

This case highlights something deeper that has been on my radar for quite sometime.... reality TV. Now don't get me wrong I am not going to rail on TV programming as the reason for this tragedy but stay with me for a moment. Programming like hit show Jersey Shore are solely predicated on the humiliation of others. I am far from a prude with a high moral compass but after watching one episode I was appalled. It astounds me there are actual human beings that are willing to put up with a whole bunch of shit just so they can be famous. They have at least made that choice of their own free will but at the end of the day they present the wrong message to the public.

When The Situation brings a girl home to have sex with her and leaves her in the bedroom while he has some cereal, then does the deed and sends her home in a cab bragging about how to handle that shit....how does that message get unscrambled in the brains of our youth? Some people are intelligent enough to see through the veil of reality TV and laugh at it because they know what losers these participants truly are. There is however, a large portion of the population who are of the same mental capacity and look up to, admire and attempt to emulate their heroes. Think of all the emergency room visits caused by endless hours of watching Jackass. Reality TV is only one part of the problem but today we have the "perfect storm".

Not only can you attempt to replicate the behaviour but technolgy has provided the way to show it off in public. Video something on your iPHONE and have it up on YouTube in minutes.....snap an embarrassing pic and post on Facebook or Twitter in seconds. Think back only 5 years or so....if I want to take an embarrassing pic of my college roomate having sex, I had to drag out my massive 1 megapixel camera, snap the shot, download it, print it and post it somewhere public. A few hundered people might see it if you were lucky.

Today, the thought process is compressed by technology, you can simply act upon your urge and in an instant it is too late to reverse your decision to broadcast to the world....something you think might be funny takes only seconds to act upon...there is not time to process if this is a bad idea or not...you just act. Whip out the iPHONE, video, take a picture or broadcast it on Skype....instantly post on Youtube or Facebook and then spread it via other social network platforms. In minutes people are watching and sending it out to their network of friends. They think it is funny too and why? It goes back to desensitization....you watch enough mindless TV and this video that popped into your inbox looks the same, so you send it around the web without a thought.

Except for one detail you didn't think of....the people on TV signed up to be humilated. Tyler Clementi DID NOT!