They don't care

The author of this article over at Deadspin was talking about how the Internet has given people a platform to communicate, and in the process made everyone insular to paradigm changes. 

Now, people have been using what was outside themselves - the environment, other people, concepts and ideas - for their own benefit, for as long as there have been people. Prior to the Internet, the process of repurposing was way more difficult than it is now. Now, new connections and new "spins" on something happen at the speed of light. It's the process that birthed all the inventions that have bettered mankind; by standing on the shoulders of giants we are able to reach higher.

The problem lies in the negative externalities - where it is difficult and rare to see good things happen, it is so much more likely for sh!t to happen. The byproduct of the process of repurposing are those products of appropriation, the failed experiments, and the inane. The technology of today provides so many possibilities and tools for scientists and engineers and inventors and thinkers to plumb, which they are doing with rigor and care; the rest of us have to put up with...  well, you know. Everything else.

What are the effects of this phenomenon on us? There's no prior case of such a thing happening. So I guess we find out for ourselves... lucky us.

No Offense, Indeed

This article by Jia Tolentino over at Jezebel is an inspired piece of writing; it elegantly expresses what's taken me several posts to articulate; Ms. Tolentino fleshes the issue out completely and clearly. I wish I could add more insights, but this article just is that good. I can't think of anything to do except reread.

Park Cho A and Bitter Work

She decided to become an idol against  her parents' wishes. She auditioned for SM Entertainment and was rejected fifteen times. She then went to JYP, where she got accepted... only to be let go once she was one step away from debuting. 

She then honed her craft the next couple of years, working part-time at sales to save money. She got into FNC and then spent more than half of her savings to finance her trainee life in this company. She trained (again) for two years before finally debuting as part of a girl group. Because of their CEO's concept for the group, she had to learn to play lead guitar - but the girl band concept didn't take off. It took three more years before AOA began to pull in decent revenue.

The thing that gets me though, is that for all her effort, if it hadn't been for a friend helping her get into FNC her prospects to debut would have been pretty bleak. But if she hadn't worked so hard, she would never be known now as such a great vocalist.

The Arbitrariness of Crowds

During the T-ara bullying scandal, one member was called out and most of the other members got persecuted for it. But when Jessica Jung of SNSD got booted out, the negativity hardly touched the group; if anything, it was Ms. Jung got the brunt of it.

Why? Because the T-ara members tweeted about Hwayoung's unprofessional behavior, maybe. He who casts the first stone - since Ms. Jung tweeted about what happened first, she's the aggressor.

(The above paragraph still doesn't make sense to me, thirty minutes into editing this post. It doesn't have to - it's a script that we fall into, the idea that there's a bad guy and good guy in any conflict.)

People surrender their higher brain functions in a crowd. And crowds figure into cases of unintended consequences.

Groups are fickle, but the sad thing is to get anywhere in this world we have to work with them. We have to work in groups to reach a goal; but one thing I found to be useful is that we don't have to put up with the group outside of reaching the goal.