Hate it, love it but you just can’t ignore
it. That juicy bit of gossip. That odd bit of scandal. You may put on your oh
-so -superior look and try to walk past but it will linger on in your mind. What
is it about other peoples business that is so tempting? Why have we become so
addicted to minding other peoples business rather than our own?
Call it a boon or a bane but since the
advent of the technologically enhanced era things are really looking up for the
voyeur!!! Gone are the days when privacy was still an option and scandalous
gossip was restricted to movie magazines. Today all and sundry are out in their
Sunday best washing dirty laundry on national network! And do we love it .We
are horrified by the lengths people go to on reality TV but yes ,we did watch
it in order to be as horrified as we profess we are!!!! The most talked about
reality shows are the ones which have the participants humiliating themselves
by fighting with and abusing the other participants on the show. They make a
public spectacle of themselves. The TRP’s go soaring. The producers are
laughing all the way to the bank. The audience is glued to their tellies and
lapping it all up. Everyone’s happy!
The net surfer has found a new vocation
too. He can happily trash people and their views without ever coming out in to
the open. He sends hate mails leaves rude comments and generally makes a
nuisance of himself safe in the confines of his online name. He gives the term
freedom of expression a whole new meaning.
The
new networking sites are a voyeur’s paradise. You can look into people’s lives
from the comfort of your home. Relationship changes are advertised across the
entire community. You can be ‘engaged’,’ married’, ‘in a relationship’ or stick
to ‘it’s complicated’ when you don’t know where you stand!!! You want to break
up and make sure everyone knows?? Well you just change your status to single
and it’s flashed onto every one of your friends news feed. A single click is
all that’s required. The voyeur’s never had it so good!
Even
as we raise our eyebrows every time a reality show degrades a participant
further we have to admit we are part of this circus too. As spectators sitting
on the sidelines and watching every bit of it with avid curiosity. Oh yes we
will make all the appropriate noises, sympathise even. But we are guilty of
enjoying a certain degree of malicious pleasure at someone’s misfortune. We are
the voyeurs behind the mask.
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