GMTS Newsletter: The sports page theory

Friday, Jan. 4, 2013

I have an opinion I call "the sports page theory."

It's the idea that when a person is asked, "What's the first section of the newspaper you read?" - most people will say the front page or business section.

Sure it is.

Looking at the front page first means you’re intelligent and worldly.

But here’s the thing: we have a bunch of papers that we get delivered here to the 9 Newsroom. And guess what? The front page and business section are always right there, easily accessible to anyone who wants them.

The sports section is nowhere to be found. Unless you check the mens' restroom.

My point here is that sometimes what we want people to think about us isn't even close to reality.

Facebook is a great example of that.

Over the holidays, how many pictures of happy, cute, clean and well-dressed families did your friends post? I'm guilty.

Real life would show Squinkies littering a toy room, kids with unbrushed hair, marker-stained fingers eating cookies for breakfast. It's the holidays, after all.

How many dimpled-cheek Pollyanna status updates detailing hot cocoa drinking and snowman building did you read?

I don't know about your house, but at mine, that reality involves someone saying "I'm cold" and asking to watch the Disney Channel about a half a snowball in.

And all that's OK. I just get the suspicion that not only are we embellishing our Facebook the way a prospective job seeker turns "coffee gopher" into "assistant in charge of supply procurement," but we're also doing it so frequently, we think it's wrong not to live up to that lofty goal.

It's the 2013 version of keeping up the Joneses. But why should we even try?

Social media has a place and a purpose, but I don't believe it should have any influence whatsoever over our mood, our perception of reality or how we feel about our lives.

It shouldn't take your fourth grade best friend's status update to make you want to get out of the house and do something fun with your family. Nor should you get out of the house and do something fun with your family just so you can post the picture for your fourth grade best friend to see.

It's an unnecessary and unhealthy competition. Or maybe I'm just trying to find a reason that wearing your PJs well after lunch and watching "Home Alone" for the third time this season is perfectly acceptable.

Come to think of it, I don't need anyone else to tell me that.

From Today’s Show:

-Who Dey!: The Bengals leave this afternoon for what we hope is the first of several NFL playoff games. But before they take on Houston tomorrow afternoon, join us tonight at 5:30 p.m. for “Earning Their Stripes” – a Bengals-themed show. Denny Janson is in Houston, Popo is here, and both will bring you all you need to know to get you ready for the big game.

Today’s Distracting Link:

Just what you’ve been waiting for: an online air sickness bag museum.

http://www.airsicknessbags.com/all-bags.html