The hell happened today?
Were you near the internet/tv/phone/social site/news station/another human being today? Did you hear about the kid in the balloon? I’ll paraphrase for you. These parents in Colorado are a little eccentric, to of course say the least (the kid’s name is Falcon). They are amateur scientists. Not to judge anyone’s hobbies… but. Seriously? I’m an an amateur crocheter, and chef, I’m a professional TV watcher. Some things you shouldn’t do as a hobby… like SCIENCE and DENTISTRY. Anyway… I’m standing by the printer at work this afternoon and I see that someone has CNN up on their computer and there’s a 6 year old boy in a hot air balloon by himself! That’s terrifying. I really don’t know how much money you’d have to give me to get me in a hot air balloon… but it’s a lot. A LOT. They’re DANGEROUS. fyi.
Anyway! So all of a sudden it’s like 3pm and it’s all over the news on tv and in the internet and all my friends are posting on facebook. The gist is a little boy walked into a hot air balloon that his scientist [sic] parents made and cut the rope and ta da! he’s in the air. LEGITIMATE CONCERN. People were telling me not to watch the news because of my whole “in the air” fear.
How did it end nail-biters? HE WAS IN THE ATTIC!!!!!! Not in the balloon at all! NOT AT ALL.
Now CNN is reporting HERE that not only was this event live on news stations around the world, but zazzle.com had over 6,000 items devoted to “balloon boy,” Facebook had three fan pages within an hour! It’s too much. A very serious and very expensive line has been crossed. I’m only an AMATEUR accountant (meaning I own a checkbook full of Elvis checks) but I imagine that law enforcement and the “saving crazy people” department of the Colorado State legislature spent a lot of wasted cash today.
Listen. I’m glad the kid’s ok. 6 year olds are not to blame for their parents eccentricities. But let this be a lesson to you INTERNET COMMUNITY. Calm down. Today we learned when too much really was too soon.
fyi, ‘balloon boy’ is also the phrase Scott Caan uses to taunt Casey Affleck in Ocean’s 11 as they perform surveillance recon.
I’m going to agree with you and Juan on this one… the news cycle is getting insanely fast.
Ever since Kanye made “I’m gonna let you finish” the punchline to every joke for 48 long hours (that feels like forever ago, doesn’t it?) I feel like every day I climb this Facebook/Twitter wave that picks up for some new piece of unknown news by noon, only to devour and cast it aside about by midnight.
I guess this is the decentralization of journalism – 10 million voices clamoring to tell you what “today” is. It’s not so bad, really (there are off switches after all, even if I rarely use them). I just wonder… are we going to wake up one day with a profound need to see a story between all this stuff, to chase a larger thread, or is it sound bites all the way down?
I think the point of information at this point is to boil it down into the smallest possible digestible nugget. If I can get the gist of an article I usually don’t wait until the end to finish it. So, yeah, definitely smaller.
What’s more is the way in which bigger threads will exist. While there are always going to be people who can run under the radar. I think some of our larger criminal threads are going to have more trouble hiding from the ever present eyes of the worldwide “neighborhood watch”.
What’s more bizarre though is having nostalgia for today. We’re able to order t-shirts about how awesome today was during today. Our product cycle was one where we couldn’t create paraphernalia with such a fast turnaround time. I wonder if production can step itself up to 1 hour photo sort of thing if we’ll be wearing today almost immediately. Kanye’s punchline was one thing, but this really floored me.
The boy in the balloon is a wake-up call to the breakneck pace at which our media onslaught exists. Dissemination of knowledge has become many people’s number one priority in life. Sometimes I feel like we’re primarily in the hands of middlemen who pour out citizen journalism to their readerships.
Note to Copycats: This is not the boy in the well hoax from our childhood. The stakes have been raised, and you better have a longer story arc than just ‘boy in a balloon’ next time.