Needle in a Haystack

Lately, I’ve been writing a daily blog post every weekday. Today is a Sunday and I was reflecting on my vast readership. I haven’t broken 20 views per day yet and I can’t say for certain that some of those views aren’t me. Have you ever wondered how many pages of content are generated every day on the Internet? It staggers the imagination. Anyone with a smartphone can create a post now.

I have family members (who probably make up about 80% of my readers who aren’t me) that use Reddit and Facebook along with other “feeds.” These services stream random content to you. In some cases, you can filter content be topic categories, but I’ve messed with some of these and even within a category it just seems like the material is...well...random.

How does anyone get above the noise? I seems like the stuff that goes viral is trivial nonsense. Gangnam Style. Really? WTF? I try to write about big ideas or at least small worthy ideas. You know, stuff we should all be concerned with. Things that will affect our future or help us understand who we are.

I guess that stuff is just too heavy for the masses. It’s disappointing. It also helps explain why Donald Trump actually has a chance of becoming president of the United States. If the Gangnam dude wasn’t from South Korea, maybe he’d have a shot too. It breaks my heart. We face serious issues and most people think the whole social system is a joke. They’re probably right, but whose fault is that?.

I’m still looking for the Internet equivalent of shouting in the public square. It seems that the public square on the Internet is about one square inch amidst a million square miles. Maybe I wouldn’t even care if my blog didn’t go viral. I just wish something more profound than Lindsay Lohan’s new extracurricular vomiting exploits would get the nod. Hey, I like Lindsay Lohan’s acting. I think she’s talented, but who cares if she can’t control her drug intake?

I have a good friend who is a deeply religious Christian. We had an interesting discussion in which he concluded that God has put us here on Earth to parrish. We seem to be making good progress in that direction, but I just can’t believe that. I keep hoping. Maybe if my blog went viral, I’d feel better about it. Maybe I’d feel better if we weren’t considering a president whose campaign rhetoric consists of statements like “we’re going to be doing stuff about those things.” I’d say “god help us” right about here, but if my friend is right, that’s not the sort of help I’m looking for.