This month a Florida jury awarded Terry Bollea, AKA “Hulk Hogan” $140 million in his lawsuit against the website “Gawker”. Gawker posted a video of Bollea having sex with his best friend’s wife and he claimed his right to privacy had been violated.
Gawker is the brainchild of Nick Denton, and has over 64 million monthly US readers. Their Facebook page alone has nearly 5 million fans and their Twitter feed 4.7 million followers. The numbers are staggering. Gawker proudly trumpets on its website:
“Attracting fans and critics alike for their inimitable delivery of news, scandal, and entertainment, the Gawker Media properties are heralded as everything from ‘deliciously wicked‘ to ‘the biggest blog in the world.”
I can sum up Gawker’s popularity up in one short sentence: People love to “Gawk”! Just look at the goofball peering into the window from the street during “The Five” on Fox News!
Webster says a “Gawker” is “a person who stares openly at someone or something. After a bad car accident on the highway, Gawkers often slow down for a look. To gawk is to gape, stare, or rubberneck without trying to hide the fact that you’re doing it.”
Gawker the website has tapped into a basic human trait; We love to gawk and stare and gape and rubberneck and any other word that describes this insatiable desire to watch. We can’t help ourselves. When we are admonished, “don’t look”, our brain responds, “You MUST look!”
This unquenchable desire to glance, starts when we are very young. Our parents are really to blame. They love to play “Peek-A-Boo” with us, but then, with “Hide And Seek”, suddenly, we aren’t supposed to look? How is a 3 year old to know the difference between uncovering their eyes to laughter in “Peek-A-Boo” and keeping them covered (or else) in “Hide And Seek?” You laugh at me when I look and then get mad at me when I look! It’s child abuse!
Next is the sinister Christmas gift hiding game. That’s where the parents tell you the exact room where the presents are hidden, but threaten bodily harm if you dare go in the room! Really? What sadistic punishment!
On and on this confusing game of torture goes throughout childhood and adolescence. “Don’t look at that book”, “Don’t come in our room,” “Don’t look in that closet”. The more they tell us “don’t look’ the more we want TO look! What kind of people do such things to their children?
As we get older we find ourselves following Father’s example. You know, the “don’t do as I do, do as I say” guy? He hears a siren, a screech of the tires, a crashing noise, and he runs to the front door, flings it open, and down the street he goes! Of course, we run after him! “Get back into the house” he yells! “You don’t need to see this!” All the while he is quizzing neighbors and bystanders and anyone who will listen. “What happened?” “Did they see?” “Who was involved?” He can’t help himself! If he is not able to catch a glimpse of the carnage, then he needs to hear every gory detail from an eyewitness who did!
Back in the house, does he really think we aren’t looking? Because we are! Peeking and peering and straining to see what has transpired. We just know it has to be good. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have forbidden us to look!
With today’s technology, we can even gawk at our gawking! If we can just get into the sight line of a television camera for a moment or two. We can grab our cell phone, call a friend or family member and say, “Hey, can you see me?” “Look at me peering into the window.” “That’s me standing behind the broadcasters!” “Turn on the DVR!” “Text Mom so she can see me waving and talking to you on the phone!” We can be “that guy!”
It will take tremendous self discipline, but I encourage you to do all you can to resist the urge to be a “Gawker.” Don’t be guilty of staring and peering and peeping and ogling. Yes, I know since childhood you have been told it’s better to be seen than heard. However, in the case of gawking, it’s MUCH better to HEAR and not SEE!
The Lonesome Leaker 