Attention-hungry Weather Balloon Monsters
If you haven’t followed the “balloon boy” saga, here is a brief outline of the story as it currently stands. You couldn’t write this stuff.
This story is a perfect example of what Seth wrote about last week.
He writes:
“So much time and effort is now put into finding followers, accumulating comments and generating controversy… all so that people will notice you. People say and do things that don’t benefit them, just because they’re hooked on attention.”
I believe there is a larger story here. One that we won’t begin to understand for another twenty years or so. In the past fifteen years, we have created the multitude mediums by which we will addict ourselves to the attention others give us. Blogs. Social networking. Youtube. Reality TV. Of course, self-centeredness or overly caring what others think has been a part of human life from the beginning of time, but instant gratification by that attention has never been so easily accessible.
The Heene family’s story is the symptom, not the problem. The parable of the Heene’s is an amazing illustration of how off-kilter our lives can become when our life’s purpose becomes self-promotion and our success is determined by how much attention we garner.
Let our Center be found elsewhere.
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