Without the Internet or social media, this would have been quite the news story on TV or in the newspaper. Perhaps once a day the news would update on the story and that would be enough to appease the public's appetite for a little more information the next day.
Enter social media. YouTube, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook ... the list goes on. Everywhere you look online there is mention of Tiger Woods. The country has almost forgotten that we have soldiers serving overseas. There are people who are unemployed and trying to avoid foreclosure or scrambling to find shelter when there is no longer a home to live in. There are advances being made in cancer research and small children behaving really well and dreaming of Santa Claus at night.
Then there is Tiger Woods. As a writer, I have taken part in the media frenzy. It's undoubtedly a hot topic but after three weeks, it's starting to wear thin. We all know Tiger likes sex like any normal human but just doesn't seem to have fidelity down to a science. We're also privy to his most personal text messages with women who decided that although they have great feelings for Tiger, money talks. Personally, I don't feel any of them have any decency and that grubby character -- Jaimee Grubbs -- she's not that impressive with her "sorries" to Tiger's wife. If she were that sorry she wouldn't publish her personal text messages for Woods' wife, Elin, to see.
As the women line up to get mega-deals with Playboy or reveal private text messages to the tabloid news, which in turn end up being repeated 20,000 times on Twitter, Tiger Woods is likely trying to figure out why he couldn't be satisfied with life as an incredible golfer with a beautiful family.
When one takes on celebrity status, his world becomes an open book. Social media opens that book even wider. Rumors get passed around, stories get over-told. In the case of Tiger Woods, the revelations about his infidelities just kept compounding making it a trending topic that can't seem to end.
Should we just let Tiger get back to the business of golf and let him deal with the after effects of the problem he has keeping his zipper up? While it's expected for people to be curious about why someone who was so well-respected would have this other persona, social media has amplified this so much that it's hard to find anyone impartial.
As in real life for non-celebrities, there's always a story within the story. We can sit and judge, tweet about how his judgment sucks and write stories about how he is a sex addict. Or we can move on and let the issue rest because there comes a point where the more that we hunger for our daily does of Tiger-is-a-bad-boy tweets, the more his family has to observe what they already know -- he cheated many times and women are getting rich because of it.
It's the holiday season. There are so many things to be social about and give thanks for. Perhaps we need to start tweeting about that instead.
n harmony
