Are you following me?

 

Either the world has gone mad or I sat on a cactus and did not realise it. 

(What does that mean?)

I don't know. Nothing makes sense any more. The world does not make sense. I think I'm the only sane one around here.

(Where's here?)

Here is where you want it to be. Wherever you are is here for you. It may not be here for someone else who is over there, but it is here for you.

Let me explain what prompted this post. Just hang in there (here) with me for a moment.

We were discussing various social medias the other day and someone said he had over 700 followers on his FB, (or was it Twitter?), account.

How can that be possible, I thought but said nothing. How can someone have over 700 followers? That's more people than I have known in my entire life. 

And it's not just social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and the like. It's happening on TV as well this not making sense thing. 

I'm sitting watching the adverts and I'm told, "this advert is wasted on you. Do you know who that person is?"

"No ... I've never seen her before ... who is she?"

"It's XYD, she's a famous singer, and the reason the advertisers used her is because she has a great following amongst her age group on social media and if she promotes this product then it will sell by the millions!"

"Oh yeah ..." I mumble unimpressed, "I bet she puts on her pants one leg at a time like every one else, whereas I lie on my back on the bed with my feet up in the air and I get dressed with both legs simultaneously! That makes me special."

I get ignored, as happens so often, with retorts of, "what's that got to do with anything?"

This celebrity thing is not just on TV. It's the same with newspapers. I pick up a paper and they say that someone famous has died whereas I did not know the person even existed. 

Or there's a news headline saying that a certain individual has divorced another individual. So what? Why do they need to tell us about celebrities and other important people getting married, separated, divorced, having a baby and so on? Does the world really need to know that? 

I read the other day that the cousin of a celebrity had stubbed his toe against the edge of the side-walk and was driven to hospital. Now that was worth headline breaking news don't you think?

Why do newspapers and TV report inane news about various famous people or celebrities, and what has happened to them, or their cousins, or their grocer's children, their dogs or whether they squeeze their toothpaste tube from the middle? Do we really need to know all this nonsense?

The answer is simple - it sells newspapers. It fills in time in the TV News hour. It provides the media an opportunity of a scoop news before everyone else.

And of course, there are a lot of people out there living life vicariously through the lives of someone else they admire. 

Their lives are so empty that they have to "follow" someone famous and be up-to-date as to what they are doing every moment of their lives.

And that makes them feel important. They know something you don't; or before you do. And that makes them believe that they are themselves important ... famous even. And they go on social media and write about themselves.   

Not me ... I just walk the streets and every so often make a statement about myself. Like, "My feet hurt ... I love pickled onions ... Yoga hurts my backside ..."

So far I have two followers ... wearing white coats and with butterfly nets.

If you have to follow someone - follow Jesus.