Sassin' back

I had this idea the other day while searching online for videos on the topic of media democracy. Actually, the idea had more to do with the comments that had been posted in response to the videos than with the videos I was reviewing. And actually, the idea was more a question, which I'm still pondering, so it doesn't really qualify as an idea yet. So anyway, probably sometime after the third video I had watched, I was reading the posted comments and found myself wondering why so many shared a similar tone; rather than thinking about the content of the comments, I was puzzling over how to characterize their tone. So actually, it wasn't one question, but two, both of which I am still pondering.
Considering the second question first, how to characterize the tone: the comments were pithy, flippant or smart ass; achieving cleverness seemed to be the underlying goal. They all fell somewhere along a spectrum that on one extreme was cynical, overbearing and arrogant and on the other was ironic (or attempted to be) and smart-alecky. Sometimes, most notably with comments that provoked a lot of responses, the commentary seemed to grow subtly competitive, as if each successive posting attempted to one up the previous in the degree to which it exemplified whatever tone had been adopted by the initial commentators. It occurred to me that in these situations the whole thing could devolve into an exercise in being clever solely for clever's sake. To put a check on my own tendency to descend into cynicism, the majority of posts were sincere, thoughtful, insightful and well-informed; they just weren't as interesting.
This leads back to the first question: why do these posts so often evoke a similar tone? Trying to answer that question can lead to many fascinating hypotheses, so for the sake of economy and in order to stay pertinent, I tried to think in terms of media democracy. Historically, innovation and progress in communication technology have been monopolized by corporations and used mainly for commerce. Except for the telephone, the technology largely emphasized one way communication, creating a world in which we've been barraged by manipulative media messages with little or no opportunity or means to effectively respond. Perhaps the similarity in tone of the video comments expresses an emotional attitude toward media that is the result of a lifetime of negotiating all those messages. Manipulation breeds distrust and engenders skepticism, which can turn to cynicism if left to molder. With a chance, finally, to talk back to video for the first time, maybe releasing pent-up and probably unexamined emotion is as much the purpose of some of these comments as anything else.
Of course, there are probably hundreds of other explanations that are more plausible, and it is possible that I perceive a tone where none exists, which says something about me (that I would rather not go into at the moment). What I find exciting is that alongside the boom in new technology, new media paradigms are emerging and evolving at an unprecedented rate. What I find even more exciting is the potential for the individual to affect the change rather than, as in the past, have the change affect the individual.

Girls Kissing Girls?

The older I get, the more often I have moments in which I question my sanity. I'm not saying that I worry that I have age-related dementia or early onset Alzheimer's; the moments I refer to arise from something I observe, usually in some form of media, that causes my jaw to drop in disbelief. Hasn't everyone at some point in his or her life seen something or read something that is so unbelievable that they must turn to a trusted friend for affirmation, or is it just me?
Last Saturday night, or Sunday morning, actually, at around 1:30, I stopped on my way home at Nizario's pizza in the Castro. The place was packed with mostly twenty-something revelers in various stages of inebriation and sexual self-identification, chattering like starlings and flitting from group to group as dance music blared from the speakers on top of the counter. As I stood in the long line waiting to buy a slice of pizza, my gaze wandered to the soundless television perched above a cooler packed with sodas and juices. At first glance, the television appeared to be tuned into a cable news channel; the screen was filled with the talking-though-inaudible head of an anchorman with a banner headline across the lower third of the screen reading " GIRLS KISSING GIRLS: Heading down a dangerous path." My jaw dropped, and then I pulled my eyes away from the screen to glance at the people standing around me for confirmation of what I was seeing. Of course, no one was paying attention to the television. I looked back at the screen to make sure that I hadn't misread the headline and watched with a growing sense of urgency as my mind struggled to make sense of what I was seeing. It seemed so unreal that girls kissing girls could be headline-making news
My first coherent thought was that what I was seeing had something to do with the current hit song "I Kissed a Girl." Had Fox Cable News gone over the top? No, that had happened long ago, but it could still possibly be Fox. Then, with almost a sense of relief, I remembered it was Saturday night... This must be Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live, and since I haven't watched the show in years, I didn't recognize the actors. As I continued to watch, though, that explanation seemed less likely...

(To be continued)