Thursday, April 10, 2008

Frontline, You Are the Shiz

I always loved watching Frontline in High School. Only the cool teachers made it part of our lesson plans. I always learned more from this bastion of PBS knowledge than I did from the actual class. Maybe its because, in a Frontline documentary, you always end up sympathizing with everyone on every side of the issue. Take, for instance, this episode on "growing up online." (from January...what a hot scoop!). I feel for the goth girl posting semi-nude photos of herself on the myface, and I feel for the psycho uber-control freak PTA mother who wants to know her son's facebook password so she can snoop on him 24/7.

In this doc, everyone complains about the internet, but they also admit to the interviewer that nothing is really the internet's fault. The suicidal kid would have committed suicide even if he hadn't googled "how do you kill yourself?" The anorexic girl would have continued to be anorexic even if she hadn't found the "Anna Worshipers" online (Anna is the coool name for being anorexic, of course).

Oh Frontline....your ambiguity makes me feel all warm inside.

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