Attention (? Or !)

Tuesday, 29 November 2011 00:00

Written by Aaron Benedict De Leon

I’m sure everyone heard what had been said by one KC Concepcion about her break-up with Showbiz hunk Piolo Pascual, and everyone will hear more stories and news about the evolving saga between the Arroyos and Aquinos. Politics, Showbiz – the news that surrounds these industries become the talk of the town, offices and even in schools.

Undeniably, the influence of media has a lot to do with the heightened attention that has been accorded to showbiz and politics. You have the perfect recipe for a catchy news item – “intriguing plots, colorful characters and an audience salivating for secrets and revelations.” The never-ending sound bytes will just continue to resonate over twitter and facebook-landia, and the videos will just continue to go viral throughout social media. These ingredients will forever keep the general public on the edge of their seats, wanting and craving for more.

This culture and behavior, most often than not, tends to rub off on the people we are closely in contact with – our families, loved ones, friends and even work/class mates. The bad part about it is that we cannot single out the fact, that along with the stories that are being shared to others, comes the negative connotation that the values that go along with the stories is socially acceptable.

In Politics, it is socially acceptable to disregard the law just to be able to keep an innocent person from possibly escaping the law. In Showbiz, it is acceptable to judge and attack a person’s character without the full knowledge of the person’s true identity and the stories behind the issues that motivate the accusations.

Because of the issues, and the polarizing effect it creates among people, the general public has been pushed to neglect objectivity to embrace personalities more than logic and reason.

Because she is an Arroyo and a perceived corrupt leader, people will not give her the benefit of the doubt about her fundamental right to travel, as upheld by the SC ruling. Because Piolo Pascual is perceived as gay, his sexuality is attacked as the reason behind his break-up with Ms. Concepcion.

Because of our pre-conceived notions about people, we have deprived them of their right to be presumed innocent.

Furthermore, media does not educate us, but compels us to make choices without being adequately informed.

We are a nation already divided by our topography, our ethnicities, and our dialects, and issues like these would only further polarize our people and would only keep them away from focusing on issues which truly matter.

Yes, these are termed as issues of importance, but where does break-up and corruption rank amongst the list of priorities of an individual or a family looking for a sustainable livelihood? How much focus do we give on issues that affect our lives versus issues that don’t nearly hold water as far as providing for our basic necessities is concerned? How do we apportion our time for past time over and above doing what is needed to survive and live?

Aside from further polarizing us as a people, these political and showbiz issues involving personalities evade us from focusing on things that truly matter – ourselves, our families, our loved ones. Because of the neglect which may be posed by focusing too much on these things, we tend to lose our attention on our familial obligations and professional responsibilities

At the end of the day, do we really need these issues to be at the foremost of our consciousness? Are we going to think like media people, or are we gonna focus on things that we need to do to make a living?

Sure, media has to do these things to make a living. But for the general public, they don’t need these issues to earn money or a livelihood, for that matter. We all need to rededicate ourselves and focus more on providing for our basic needs and working to guarantee that social services and government services are smoothly delivered to all of us.

Arroyo, Aquino, Concepcion, Pascual, they live because of fans like most of us.

But how about us? Can we live with the issues that surround them?

Just pondering, with no pun intended.