This is an anonymous guest post submitted to GainesvilleScene.
We all knew this day would come.
A superficial, vapid sitcom titled “Selfie” is set to premiere in the fall, confirming our worst fears about America’s downward descent into a basic dystopia. The ABC network, known for Emmy-winning shows like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Modern Family,” has decided that what we really need isn’t another profound, emotional drama or sharp, family sitcom, it’s a lifeless, uninspired caricature of misunderstood millennials.
Via: dailystar.co.uk
Attempting to pass itself off as a modern telling of “My Fair Lady,” “Selfie” follows Eliza Dooley (a lá Eliza Doolittle), a new age “celebrity” with 263,000 Instagram followers (aren’t you impressed?), as she comes to the realization that being friended is not the same as having actual friends. Eliza hires a marketing guru, Henry Higenbottam (a lá Henry Higgins), to rebrand her image and teach her how to connect.
Obviously, this is nothing like the insightful British commentary on class divides of “My Fair Lady.” This is a cheap, miscalculated, brazenly condescending middle finger to all of us in the Internet Age. Instead of bridging the generational gap, this show sets it on fire.
Truth be told, anyone under the age of 30 probably does care about their online following, their social media rep and yes, their selfies. Modern Internet culture has given us all a chance to market ourselves, to build relationships and to see our lives documented and reflected back to us. Staying removed from the online realm means purposely blinding yourself to the rich events happening in your friends’ lives every day, to the instant spread of breaking news and to the level of interaction between individuals that was impossible just a decade ago.
With all that said, the misconception that we are all obsessed with virtual channels to the point of losing touch with reality is a sad myth perpetrated by a generation that refuses to understand our motivations.
Our Wi-Fi connections and our human connections are not mutually exclusive — if anything they bolster each other. We are able to learn so much more about our friends, to empathize with their daily journeys and to reach out in a million different ways at the tap of a button.
To confuse our medium of connectivity for a lack thereof is a disappointing move by an aging entertainment industry that seems to be losing its grip on our demographic. Of course, many of us will still tune in to “Selfie.” Starring Karen Gillan from “Doctor Who” and John Cho from “Harold and Kumar,” it certainly has the acting and comedy chops to turn out a decent sitcom.
Just think of how great it could have been, though, if instead of handing out scathing advice on how to live “in the now,” the show actually tried to understand what living “in the now” really means these days.
Via: examiner.com
Featured photo courtesy of: digitaltrends.com
