Tabloids

 

When I was a kid starting around 4th grade, I really began to find my voice through creative writing.  I loved writing stories and serials.  I carried that love of creative writing through high school.  The writing really tapered off after that.  I miss it and hope to pick it up once again. Anyhow, because I loved writing, I used to read tabloids all of the time.  Mom would buy me copies of The National Enquirer, The Sun, The Globe among others.  I just ate them up. 

Even as a pre-teen, I knew it was fake. I knew that the stories were not real.  They were so fantastical and absolutely absurd most of them.  But they were so delicious to read.  And I always thought to myself, who would ever believe this kind of thing?  I just didn't see how anyone could believe stories of Elvis still being alive, or of the adventures of Bat Boy, or all of the drama that went on in the lives of every celebrity in Hollywood.  I thought only an idiot would believe such rubbish, entertaining though it may be.

With the advent of social media, I get it now.  People will believe anything.  No research, no fact checking.  If it comes from a specific source, it is believed no matter how out there it is.  And this in on both sides of the aisle. It's just ridiculous to me but that is where we are right now.  As a kid, I enjoyed reading the National Enquirer.  As an adult, I do not enjoy living in it.