“We’ve heard of him… I guess”
The reply floored me.
I was in Disney World last week doing some fun work for Disney Canada and skimming over the trees going from EPCOT to the Hollywood Studios park in the new SkyLiner gondola system (super cool btw).
Myself and Shannon were sharing the gondola with three young girls who were about 15 years old. After some light chitchat, they told us they were from Wisconsin and at the park with a school band trip. They then politely asked us where we were from…
“Stratford, Ontario, Canada… you know, Justin Bieber’s hometown” I replied, expecting the usual oh’s and ah’s and “do you know him?”s.
Instead I got blank stares. I said Bieber again. Still nothing.
It was as if I had said a random name of someone from our hometown.
”You know, Bill McYouveneverheardofhim’s hometown.”
These young girls were very kind and polite. They immediately responded to my wide-eyed response with “Oh! Uh, yeah. We’ve heard of him… I guess.”
Shocking! Shocking, I tell you!
Now, of course, times change. Popularity of pop stars wanes. At best it ebbs and flows and that’s fine.
There is no requirement or necessity for anyone to know who Justin Bieber is.
Justin is a talented young man who provides joy for millions but not knowing who he is does not put any aspect of your life into peril.
But it got me thinking…
I have had numerous conversations with various people over the past few years where I will mention someone’s name, a politician for example, and be met with blank stares. Despite the politician in question being front page news (if people still read front pages).
Political party leaders and moronic representatives with entirely too much power, in short, people who CAN and just MIGHT affect the everyday lives of the people who have apparently never heard of them.
That’s not good.
The way information and entertainment is distributed today offers us the ability to tune out anything we don’t find interesting or engaging or important to specifically ourselves.
That’s great for consuming TV shows, movies and social media, but not so great for ACTUAL news.
If we get to choose whatever we wish to consume why would we ever consume something unpleasant or boring? Why wouldn’t we simply cocoon ourselves in a cozy blanket of familiarity and zero challenges?
We’ve been doing just that…
and there are people getting very rich and powerful because of it.
For example, FOX News and CNN are really good at this.
To be clear, I’m not equating those two as news stations.
No, FOX is to news as WWE is to sports: kinda but more theatre.
Politicians like Donald Trump and Pierre Poilievre are really good at this.
To be clear, I’m not equating th… well, actually those two are currently operating from the same playbook… say what you want on social media to rile up the base and then retract, if needed, when called on it.
Though to be fair to Pierre, Trump is a little more “violent insurrectiony”.
Side Note: I’m not suggesting this only affects those on the right-leaning side of politics. It affects us all. I recently asked two young women in Canada what they thought of Pierre Poilievre and they had never heard of him.
Uh, that’s not great.
The old adage in business is to give the customer what they want.
Thanks to algorithms and playlists, it’s never been easier to do just that.
The problem is the customer, us, is an idiot.
We think what we’re being served is all that’s out there.
It. Is. Not.
We have never had easier access to as much information, media and entertainment than we do today and it’s all in your pocket right now.
There is so much information, media and entertainment out there that we seek shelter in the familiar.
I get that.
I’ve watched The Office on Netflix about 15 times.
Except Scott’s Tots because it’s too sad.
But even that proves my point.
In blunt terms, if you’re consuming only what you think you want, you’re probably being exploited.
You’re being kept docile and easy to sell to.
You’re making yourself very easy to commodify to marketers and ne’er do wells.
While you’re kept slack jawed, sleepy-eyed and being fed only the information you want, somebody might be getting away with something.
I realize that this can start to sound a little conspiratorial, but it’s not.
This is more about hearing a rumour from a friend and waiting to hear from someone in the know before you just believe it.
You don’t need to know everything and everybody but it’s important that you venture out of your comfort zone or at least be aware of what’s beyond it.
It will help in either making you question your stances, or it will reaffirm them.
Both can be good.
Consuming important information can be boring and less tasty, but like Buckley’s cough medicine it can be good for you.
Read news from various sources to try to build a balanced view of what’s happening in the world.
Some of it might affect you… and you might be able to do something about it.
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Great observation and advice. If I may be so bold as to add “information that is well researched and accurate is worth paying for” so let’s keep supporting journalism and reading more than headlines!
You built EPCOT? I KNEW IT WAS CANADIAN!