If you're reading this, chances are you're doing so for one of the following reasons: 1) You recognize my genius, and read everything I write; 2) You're extremely attracted to headshots of bearded men (can't blame you); or, and this is by far the most likely, 3) You read the title and thought "Whoa, I love sex/drugs/alcohol/explosions!"
I hate to disappoint you, especially now that you've made the commitment of actually starting to read, but the contents of this article will only tangentially deal with the words in the title.
Specifically, how every college student on the continent seems at all times preoccupied with one or more of those things, how various media entities know and exploit that fact, how said use of those topics by said media entities cheapens and/or ruins cultural discourse, the role of search engines in all this, and why I resent it all.
First off, though, let's talk titles. Level with me (or, rather, yourself) for a moment: you started reading this because of the title. Even if you're utterly intrigued by what I'm going to talk about and completely agree, you'd have been a lot less likely to read this column if it was called something along the lines of "Why I Resent the Tastes of a Collegiate Readership, and, to a Lesser Extent, Search Engines." I can't blame you, though, because I wouldn't want to read something called that either.
As a writer/editor/general literary-type person, I really appreciate a good title. Incidentally, I can't help but resent the impact search engines have had on the fine art of writing titles. The monster that is search engine optimization turns gems like "Check Yourself Before You Shrek Yourself" (courtesy of James Twigg and Nick Pino) to "Shrek the Musical Review," and transforms informative hard news headlines into tabloid sensationalism. Keywording has ruined everything.
The logic that informs this process reaches its apex when media entities not only search-engine-optimize the s*** out of all their content, but also produce content that panders to the most-searched keywords (thus the preponderance of stuff dealing with sex, drugs, and explosions).
(There are also those annoying people/entities who/that will insert misleading, often-searched keywords into content in a shameless attempt to increase traffic. Like, for instance, putting things like "Inception download" or "boobs" or "Justin Bieber rocks" or "Kim Kardashian wedding" or "meth lab instructions" or "hot lesbian scissor action" or "Justin Bieber sucks" or "weed legalization" or "sex" into, say, the middle of an article for no reason.)
This search-term pandering isn't just annoying, it's dangerous, from a cultural-discourse standpoint, because its logical conclusion is a society that discusses nothing but getting laid, high, drunk, or exploded. Not that there's anything wrong with those various states of being, but what is there left to say about them? Are there really that many more insights to be made about how and why weed should be legalized, or the circumstances under which you should and shouldn't stick your poptart into her toaster (or whatever)?
Short answer: no.
But in a media system whose very nature encourages repeatedly covering those same topics, discourse about them (instead of, say, real issues) won't only continue, but increase. The Spectrum of twenty years hence, I predict, will be nothing but sex columns, sports coverage, and opinion pieces about how marijuana should be legalized because it still won't be legalized because those in the position to legalize it 1) don't care about what you, the common citizen, think, and 2) don't base laws on logic, but how much campaign money a certain position gets from corporate lobbyists. If you really want to get marijuana legalized (or anything else done, if you don't happen to be a corporate lobbyist), you've got to start by addressing this fundamental problem, instead of rehashing 40-year-old arguments and listing all the cool things that can be done with hemp.
And, ultimately, if we as a society ever intend on addressing those sorts of fundamental issues, we've got to start by not talking about sex and drugs and partying (or at least not as often), and start encouraging serious discourse, even if doing so isn't as keyword-conducive.
Email: eabenoit@buffalo.edu
