Thirty Million Viewers...and I was one of them...How dumb can I be? (Should that read, "How dumb can 'we' be?)

"The dumbing down of a nation inevitably leads to the death of a culture."

The above quote comes from the on-line book by Charlotte Thompson Iserbyt "The Dumbing Down Of America".  So while surfing the Internet for something brilliant to post (anything to get more hits LOL) I decided to see what kind of stories are posted at the university level (must be some smart students out there...somewhere?).  Where shall I start?  Now lets see, New York University is in the news occasionally...I'll begin my exploratory search for brilliance right there, in the heart of the Big Apple (actually, Google Maps will show that they're spread all over Manhattan).

They (New York University News) call themselves, 'Washington Square News' and they even brag about winning the 'Best In-Depth Reporting in the nation from the Society of Professional Journalists'.  Well with that kind of kudos I'm certain to luck out with really brilliant commentary from the nation's finest.

Cutting right to the chase I click on the opinion link and discover this headline, "Penchant for parody fuels Black's awful anthem "Friday" "  Not very catchy...doesn't really draw my attention and to tell you the truth, I don't have a clue as to what they are referring to...must be my lack of understanding of today's highly educated youth.  Well that was short-lived, the first line identifies 'Black' and 'Friday' and I suppose you could call that brilliant strategy...yeah,we need more of that...get it right out there so we know who and what we are reading about...good stuff! ...but that's where it ends.  Here, lets read the intro:

Rebecca Black has become the latest Internet tween sensation with her hit single "Friday." With the video climbing from just 3,000 views on YouTube to 18 million in a week (right now sitting pretty with nearly 30 million), "Friday" can be called a success story — right? Sort of.  

The 13-year-old's song was christened with the title "Worst Music Video Ever" by Gawker and only garnered public exposure after comedian Daniel Tosh's segment "Songwriting Isn't For Everyone" on Tosh.0. In essence, Rebecca Black is famous for being awful.

So is this a story worth the paper its printed on (they print seven thousand copies four days per week) or just an exercise in an attempt to underscore the quote above?  Its more as if the quote ascribes a meaning to 'In-Depth Reporting'... But why is this so dumb?  Well we have to get to the video to proove a point.  This video has to be, as the say, (the) "Worst Music Video Ever".  More importantly the question arises, "Why so many viewers?"  Are we all that discombodulated from reality that we are drawn closer together as a nation of dumbed down citizens or is it the rubber-necking syndrome of having to look at what everybody else is watching...people who subscribe to the latter are also known as lemmings.  Now you can read the In-Depth story here but after watching this video you'll be asking yourself, "Why?"   ~ Norman E. Hooben ...boy do I feel dumb! thirty million viewers and I was one of them...