We've now reached the point in internet history where serious language has become conflated with articles about what food celebrities are eating. "It is a choice of life or death for your future children if you don't see this burrito Christina Aguilera ate at Taco Bell." It's like those chain letters we used to all get in our e-mails that demanded us to repost in 10 seconds or the Bell Witch would slit our throats in our dreams, but unlike those, people are actually sharing these articles with more than Dan and Cheryl at the office. These appear in our Facebook feeds, advertisements, Twitter feeds, and to a lesser extent, Tumblr feeds. These clickbait headlines are diminishing the meaning of words one click at a time. They're the boy who cried wolf of the internet. The saddest part is, like many other annoying or uncomfortable things on the internet, we must endure them... or do we?
I almost feel remiss to my own personage to comment on this, but the Kim Kardashian photo comments must end (Yes, I'm aware of the irony taking place right now, but I want to reach a broader point, so here goes).
As a society, we are allowing ourselves to delve deep into the superficial meandering of a talentless reality TV show personality by going through mental leaps and bounds to connect her behavior to negative aspects of our cultural past and present as a way to publicly shit on her and then gossip about it with our friends. This question often goes unaddressed, but what's the point? Why do we pay attention? Why do we reblog, retweet, and repost on Facebook these pointless and inflammatory articles and images of someone we claim to not give two shits about?
There are many different aspects of Paper Magazine's photos of Kardashian being analyzed by media outlets. Blue Telusma made a comment on the overt racist overtones that Jean-Paul Goude's photo borrows from a real woman named Sarah "Saartjie" Baartman, but this seems like a blip in the current realm of oppression against African Americans. The numerous shootings of unarmed black men by white police and portrayal of them as criminals in the media, for example, are much larger issues that deserve analysis, rather than a white Frenchman's fetishes. Not to mention, there is some contention over how much of the photos are photoshopped, but all celebrity photos are photoshopped. This is not anything new.
The aspect going ignored or briefly being spun into a crappy pun for retort is the tagline "Break the Internet," which suggests these photos will somehow have a large enough impact on our lives that the very fabric of the internet will crumble.
Really? Really, Paper Magazine?
"Break the Internet" is a clear slogan for the bandwagon clickbait language we've come to know and hate from such sites as Buzzfeed and Gawker. But even Buzzfeed has been covering some real news, lately.
Paper Magazine is the latest example of websites looking to exploit the most basic impulses of our ids. I had never heard of Paper before the Kardashian photos, but after a quick glance at their site, it's no surprise why. The site is riddled with articles about Taylor Swift's eyebrows and interviews with prominent figures of the New York City nightlife. Basically, it's another website with lists about dumb stuff, celebrity gossip, and interest pieces on uninteresting people. Buzzfeed has already proven this model successful to gain internet traffic and clicks. It actually ranks in as the 30th most visited site in The United States.
What is the Buzzfeed model? The oversimplification goes like this: comment on celebrities' personal lives, appeal to nostalgia, simplify it in a list, and use sensationalized headlines that stir our emotions or give us a false sense of urgency. Or in Paper's case, just show a half-nude Kim Kardashian.
By insinuating photos of Kardashian would "break the internet," Paper took hyperbole, injected it with steroids, had it do a fusion dance with Super Saiyan 4 Goku, and finally arrived at a tagline that sounds more like a Childish Gambino EP than anything relevant to a half-nude photo of a reality TV star. (Did I just use too much hyperbole right now? Ah, fuck it.)
Sensationalized headlines and images aren't revolutionary or new tactics in journalism (think National Enquirer), but it is evolving into an absurd sideshow that endlessly floods the social media outlets we all use every day. And that is a problem.
The real impetus lies on us to not respond to the overload of different media outlets jumping at the opportunity to gain traffic off of this completely pointless photo shoot. The countless spoofs only add more gasoline to the fire and serve as a way for other sensationalist websites to gain traffic. (It feels weird to even hyperlink them, but context is important.) I mean, we've all seen a naked woman before. We've even probably all seen Kim Kardashian naked already. How does this remotely effect us or the internet? In plain, it doesn't. I know deep down that none of us actually care about this, so let's start acting like it.
Let me put it this way, if this is popular enough for me to take time out of my day to point out how irrelevant it is to the real social problems we are facing in the world right now then things need to change.
In short, DON'T click on any Kim Kardashian related links and DON'T share them. STOP clicking on links for sites that use phrases such as "You have to see this!," "Craziest thing ever!," "Your head will explode after you see what happens!," or "Break the Internet." You know you're always disappointed with how the language and what you actually see never correlate. I'm telling you now, it's okay not to click links like this just because your friends post them
Let this be the wake up call for the future. When something like this inevitably happens again, simply ignore it. There will always be these types of celebrities in the limelight, but it doesn't mean you have to care. Don't fall pray to sensationalist language or nude photos of celebrities. You're better than that, champ. I believe in you.
*Side note: This is a brief TED Talk about clickbaiting. Check it out:
http://www.ted.com/talks/sally_kohn_don_t_like_clickbait_don_t_click?language=en
No comments:
Post a Comment