Blogging Compassionately

In the last two weeks I have spent a lot of time looking at blogs that I've never read before and re-examinaning the ones I refer to on a daily basis. In looking at these blogs, I've made some conclusions, the first of which being, there are SO many blogs out there today. Not only are there thousands of blogs with topics ranging from fashion to finance, many of these sites are updated weekly, daily, even multiple times per hour. In our globalized society, information can be made available with alarminly rapid turnaround. Information, pictures, even videos can be seen by the world seconds after a story breaks. While one may marvel at how far we have come in our production and use of technology, we also need to be careful with the power extensive technology has afforded us. One way I think this 24-hour information cycle is impacting the world in a negative way is our increasing obsession with celebrity watching. One blogger who has capitalized on celebrity obsession and built a lucrative career on it is L.A. based blogger Perez Hilton. "Perez" updates his site almost by the minute with pictures, gossip and his own opinions. I'll admit, I love seeing what my favorite it-girls are wearing today as much as the next girl, and I often refer to Perezhilton.com to see the latest pictures; but the media circus that has been created by paparazzi and reporters trying to snap Lindsay getting coffee or Britney going to court is scary to watch. I think the number of pictures we see everyday of certain celebrities is excessive, but I've also noticed lately the the comments Perez uses to accompany the paparazzi photos have become increasingly vulgar and mean-spirited. What used to be a fun site to see new pictures and make casual jokes about some socialite's messed-up spray tan has become something that I almost feel guilty for looking at. This past Tuesday when I found out about actor Heath Ledger's death my first thoughts were about how the media would handle it, including Perez. The predictable circus of photographers appeared within minutes in front of Ledger's apartment and even waited outside his two-year old daughter's home to catch a glimpse of Ledger's greiving family. The media pounced on the story so quickly that Ledger's parents found out about their son's death on television. While I expected not much more from the relentless paparazzi, I was still saddended and disappointed in the photographers' disregard for the tragedy Ledger's family is going through. When I got home from class yesterday, I logged on to perezhilton.com to see what I'd missed that day, I was pleasantly surprised at one of his entries. Perez reported, like other media outlets the latest on the investigation into Ledger's death and what his family and friends were doing. When Perez reported that Ledger's ex-girlfriend and daughter had returned home, he used a picture of the late actor instead of video and pictures of the two arriving home. Perez said that he would not use pictures of any family members, friends visiting, or the memorial service out of respect for the greiving family and encouraged other news outlets to use the same discretion. Even though Perez knew millions of people would have logged onto his site to see the heart-wrenching pictures and video, he did what he felt was compassionate and ethical, and I very much appreciated and respected that. It also gave me the inspiration for my first blog...