This past week, the nation was hit with “The Dress.” This dress caught the attention of everyday people, celebrities and even politicians.
It is rare something catches the attention of these different types of people. What is even more surprising is that something as silly as the color of a dress is what drew this media attention.
Some people saw “The Dress” as gold and white while others saw it as blue and black. It was mind-boggling that such an issue gained so much attention, but it was interesting as to why it happened.
Years ago this would not have made it around to so many people so quickly to the amount of viewers as today. From tweets to making it on the news, this dress was a viral sensation. Though it is such a senseless topic, perhaps it is better to see this on the news rather than a tragedy that we too often hear about.
“The Dress” was so widely heard about, that on March 3 Ellen DeGeneres had “The Dress” on her show to clarify the real color of it. DeGeneres is known to have celebrities on her show, so it is no surprise this dress was featured.
One man even got a tattoo of the dress in black and blue on his leg with the words “White and Gold?” surrounding it. As absurd as this is, it just goes to show how involved media coverage is today.
Currently, we have access to so many media it can be dangerous. We are able to see so much we can be blinded to the real world. When you think about this dress, really, what is the big deal? Yes, it is interesting as to why some see different colors, but did it need to become this huge deal?
That is just the society we live in. The smallest things can become as big of a deal as people make them, and it is all about the impression left on the viewers. Once an audience gets hooked, news stations and shows like “Ellen” want to blow it up even more.
We have to start thinking about the issues we want to make a big deal of. What if instead of publicizing this dress, we bombarded social media with the cost of college and how much of a factor it is in our lives? Would politicians and celebrities be re-tweeting it? Probably not. “The Dress” is a light subject that can be observed and taken jokingly. The cost of college is way too big of an issue for people to discuss with the same enthusiasm.
People tend to ignore the real issues and focus on the easy stories. The color of a dress really does not matter at the end of the day. There are so many other factors in life to give attention to and discuss on social media, but people are scared to address them.
