THAT TWO MINUTES OF FAME
Iremember joining Facebook 12 years ago. Then, it was quite a fun social media platform where we enjoyed the great things happening to those who shared photographs of their happy occasions. It was a great way to connect with people we had not kept in touch with over the years and many friendships were either revived or formed for better or worse. Useful information and great articles were also found on it.
However, Facebook and social media in general have now taken a turn for the worst. It is a constant whinging or mourning about somebody or something. It has also become a platform for all the wannabes to be a star because it has a wider circulation and is easier than being featured in one of the numerous glitzy magazines in circulation now. It seems that it is all about that two minutes of fame.
Beauty pageants for both men and women are aplenty, which results in dozens of Ms. Mr. and Mrs. Sri Lanka in a year. It seems that most of the participants win some title or other, Talent, Costume, Sporty etc. These achievements are circulated widely on social media, especially since the local print media is overwhelmed and has probably begun to realise that these are useless bits of information.
The other trick adopted by these media posters is once they feel they have publicised themselves widely they put a price tag on themselves. You hear of amusing stories where they make demands when invited to cut a ribbon at some tacky shop opening or even to be seen there thinking that they will create an impact with their presence. Recently, there were stories circulating about a woman who had won a title of some sort and her other half had set himself up as her Manager, thinking she will be the next best thing to sliced bread in this country, and began demanding financial compensation for her to pose for pictures and magazine covers. It is understood that she was even hawked to promote tourism. I seriously think we have other methods of promoting our country, than appointing some Dumbo, to allure millions of tourists here. Every other person who can stand tall and walk straight are either super models or top models. A choreographer and producer of fashion shows told me that such elite models cannot count beyond four and do not know their left foot from their right and that it was such an uphill task producing a show these days. Colombo has become a joke with all these people masquerading as stars. We do have a few who have made it internationally. They do not market themselves as Ambassadors for anything for their motherland, unless invited. I guess that two minutes of fame is better than none. All we can do is be entertained and amused watching this charade, since when the day passes, we have already forgotten today's face and a new one will appear tomorrow.