The Social Media and Me
I recently did an interview on ESPN2’s Dan LeBatard is Highly Questionable. Dan is a Miami-based sportswriter and radio host, and I’ve had a great time doing his radio show in the past. So, when he asked me to join him as the first non-sports guest on the new, entertaining TV show he does with his father, I was happy to oblige. And, indeed it was great fun, and, as you can see here, it was a very amusing and entertaining seven minutes or so.
We taped the segment a few days ahead of time, and I was flying across the country when it aired on January 24. That evening, I went to YouTube to watch the interview, and I noticed that a couple of hundred people had also watched it. Among the things they saw was a story I had told at least fifty times before about having margaritas at a Mexican restaurant across from NBC when Wheel of Fortune was a daytime show about 30 years ago. We had very long dinner breaks, and I joked that, by the time we got back to work, we had trouble recognizing the alphabet.
In the morning, I decided to send the link to the YouTube clip to some friends so they could see the piece, when I noticed that a couple of hundred views had turned into many thousands. What I didn’t realize at that moment was that I had fallen into the Social Media Vortex. For those who haven’t had the pleasure, it goes like this: a couple of websites link to the clip with headlines like “Pat Sajak Drunk While Doing Wheel,” and the number of “hits”—or views—spikes to levels that gain the attention of those who monitor such things, such as all the wacky morning radio crews around the country.
They all talk about it, and then you start “trending” on Twitter, further driving the hits into the hundreds of thousands, thereby gaining the attention of the so-called mainstream press. Before it subsides almost as quickly as it began, you find the “story” on ABC, CBS, CNN, and even featured on the NBC Nightly News. That’s right. A major national news organization decided that two guys laughing about having margaritas three decades ago was one of the items that should be featured on its nightly roundup of the top stories in the nation and the world.
The whole experience drove home a great irony of the Internet Age: while we are now provided with an almost infinite variety of voices and perspectives, we are also herded toward the same stories. Nearly all media outlets are now drinking from the same trough. Somewhere in a small town in the Midwest, a little girl’s parents will record her as she pedals her tricycle over a cat’s tail, causing the cat to jump up on her head. The video will become a YouTube sensation, and the little girl and her cat will be flown to New York to appear on Good Morning, America and The Late Show with David Letterman. If she’s lucky, she might even make the NBC Nightly News.
Welcome to the future. It’s a very weird place.
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Comments:
Sep '10
Re: The Social Media and Me
Glad to have you back Pat. I hope you'll write more often.
Re: The Social Media and Me
Thanks, I will. And I will soon explain my absence.
Jan '11
Re: The Social Media and Me
Good to hear from you again, Pat.
Of course, if I were you, I'd take it as a compliment. The story made headlines mostly because Pat Sajak ... Pat Sajak! ... you know, that really nice guy on that pleasant show ... may have had a couple shots too many.
If the story was about Keith Olbermann, who would care?
May '11
Re: The Social Media and Me
Somebody call David! We're getting the old band together again!
May '11
Re: The Social Media and Me
I'm with the cat, you're always welcome Pat!
Mar '11
Re: The Social Media and Me
I have a similar story: 3 decades ago I had trouble recognizing the alphabet, 2 decades later I was drunk a lot, this weekend I've succumbed to something viral. The coincidences are almost creepy.
Jun '10
Re: The Social Media and Me
A reporter, or researcher, who pretends not to understand hyperbole, while hearing (or reading) a colorful story, can suddenly have lots of juicy material to work with. They just remove the pesky context--maybe the storyteller's attempt at humor--and they turn it into everlasting autobiographical testimony. Then, after they've done that, they wonder why people hate them.
Re: The Social Media and Me
That was a great interview. My favorite part was the Los Arcos joke.
Jul '10
Re: The Social Media and Me
No need to explain Pat. We've been following these candidates and think this is the perfect time for you to launch your Presidential candidacy. We know how time consuming that can be. Just let us know where to volunteer for the campaign. Clever bit with the Mexican restaurant, that'll lock the Mexican vote.
Edited on January 29, 2012 at 8:56amMar '11
Re: The Social Media and Me
While we are now provided with an almost infinite variety of voices and perspectives, we are also herded toward the same stories.
A disturbing uniformity of taste and interest is indeed afoot. Even the infinite variety of voices is misleading--it is more like an infinite number of different voices speaking the platitudes of an ever-shrinking range of perspectives.
The vocabulary with which to express a different opinion is diminishing (especially if your opinion is subtle), along with the marginalization of tastes that run counter to the dominant trends which threaten to make proletarians of us all.
---
Also, Dr. Dre is not a doctor? Heresy. That's like saying that Parliament never served in a governing body and didn't actually have a mothership connection. Tear the roof off this mother.
Apr '11
Re: The Social Media and Me
To update Mark Twain, a lie can go twenty times around the Internet while the truth is still booting up its ISP.
You'll be happy to know the story, "Pat Sajak did 'Wheel' Drunk", was in the entertainment news feed on the Verizon portal this morning.
Edited on January 29, 2012 at 12:06pmMar '11
Re: The Social Media and Me
It is good to see you back, Pat.
Keith's loyal viewers would care, KC. All seven of them.
Apr '11
Re: The Social Media and Me
Yay! Pat Sajak. You know Pat you were one of the reasons I dished out 30 bucks to join this site. I always enjoyed your columns on here when I got a chance to read them, you should totally do a podcast...
Jan '11
Re: The Social Media and Me
Pat is back. The Intel tab has produced another positive result.
Aug '11
Re: The Social Media and Me
Indeed it is! So good to see you back on here.
Someone asked the question on here the other day about what led us to Ricochet. I couldn't remember at the time but it's all coming back now...it was you. I saw a link to one of your postings, followed it here and discovered Ricochet.
Sep '10
Re: The Social Media and Me
I guess it's the headlines that get you, huh? I was drawn in: PAT SAJAK ADMITS TO BEING DRUNK ON WHEEL (so THAT's where he's been!) only to find what was obviously a throw-away line, joke, etc. I find the AOL headline writers to be the worst in this regard, hyping stuff to the point of misleading. So glad to see you back on the site, Pat!
Sep '10
Re: The Social Media and Me
Release the Sajak
Apr '11
Re: The Social Media and Me
Pat Sajak back on Ricochet: #thingsthatareawesome
Aug '10
Re: The Social Media and Me
Olbermann jumped on whose head ?.. I must have missed something . Pat, is "Y" a verb ?
May '10
Re: The Social Media and Me
Pat, so glad to see this--you faced an attack from the headline hyenas, and handled it gracefully. I once commented here that you a Brave Little Toaster, and you are. Smiles!