Friday, May 27, 2011

1503 Nooglin'

I often click the News tab on the Google mainpage and go to their news aggregator. All the news that's fit to Google. Google news. Noogles, I like to call it.
When you go to the Google newspage they have a cool feature. On the lower right they have the top ten "most shared" news articles. It’s a great indicator of what news people are spreading around to each other. The viral newsbeat as it were.
I like it because it gives a quick overview of what's most important to Americans. Turns out the news articles that are the most shared are the ones that are most gossipy.
The more lurid the better. Juicy stuff travels at the speed of tittle-tattle.
So it's no surprise that the top ten stories the other day featured the following:
"Porn Found In Bin Laden's Compound."
"Porn Found with Bin Laden."
"Ashton Kutcher Joining Two and a Half Men."
"Drop Box Lied to Users."
"Osama Bin Laden's Porn Stash."
"Bin Laden Hideout Had Porn."
"We Have Found Bin Laden's Porn."
"One Third of Food Produced For Human Consumption Uneaten."
"Porn Found In Bin Laden Compound Files."
"Social Security and Medicare to Run Out Sooner."
The last story obviously indicates that there still aren't enough senior citizens on the World Wide Web. Medicare scare stories burn like tinder amongst the oldsters.
But isn't it amazing? Six out of ten most-shared stories dealt with Bib Laden's porn. Sure, it's interesting to see the person who most decries evil western morals occasionally sneaks a peek.
I'm sure it's just so he can recognize Satan when he sees him or her.
We, on the other hand, now have the internet as a psycho- sociological tool to see our own devils. And prove once and for all why sales are so high for the National Enquirer.
America, ya gotta love it.

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