Every day is a new day. And every new day brings new drama, scandal and gossip to this controversy-addicted nation.
We've had quite a rollercoaster ride recently, so to speak. The Tham Luang cave has been milked dry by the media after a few weeks of reporters following and uncovering every single aspect of the rescue operation -- stories of heroes, villains, volunteers, rescuers, the coach, the boys, their stateless status, the bad press, the foreign press, witch doctors, shamans, and more -- all of which have been dug through a thousand times, presumably for the benefit of the audience.
After the boys were extracted safely, we were suddenly relieved. No more being on-call for breaking news throughout the day, no more nail-biting anticipation on the edge of our seats.
But not too long, apparently. In this society, we keep ourselves occupied (and somewhat entertained) by hopping along from one sensation to another. From a life-and-death matter like the cave rescue, we have shifted our attention to more trivial but equally juicy matters -- thanks to the media, both prime-time and online, that feed those pieces to us constantly.
The first high-profile drama after Tham Luang was the continuation of a relationship turned sour, concerning a young actor and his ex who allegedly faked her pregnancy and claimed to have a miscarriage. Now the actor has announced he's taking legal action against the woman, which I think is deserved if the whole pregnancy debacle turned out to be a hoax. It may be too soon to jump to any conclusion, though we surely hope the truth will be unveiled soon.
And while we're waiting for that -- or rather, we're not, since our attention span for weekly dramas isn't really that long -- another juicy story has now surfaced: the story of a jilted bride and her runaway groom, who stood her up at their own wedding. The viral topic saw the young groom and his family being carted from one interview to another. The couple's history and past affairs have been exposed and laid bare, including an unsavoury, yet even more viral, leaked photo of the groom's enlarged penis. Do we really need to see that, and why?
In a sense, high-profile "human interest" scandals can be good for raising awareness on certain issues; for instance, the debate on penile enlargement will continue, and perhaps it's the only benefit to have come from such a trivial matter that somehow ends up making national headlines.
Looking at some of the stories that become headline news these days, have you ever wondered how they end up there in the first place? Don't we have anything better or more important to discuss than people's relationships gone wrong? We ravage through one media circus after another, and we never stay long. Ever distracted by shiny new materials, we may have already been served a new drama on a hotplate by the time this article is published.
Meanwhile, we never seem to discuss some of our unresolved past cases and high-profile stories anymore; you know, the real public stories -- of real national interest -- and not personal stories blown up to acquire an inflated degree of public curiosity. For example: the black leopard poached by a rich man, the borrowed wristwatches worn by a deputy prime minister, the government's budget meeting nobody wanted us to know about.
It's as the song goes, "we don't talk (about it) anymore like we used to do". We thrive on drama to keep ourselves going and we let go of the important things along the way.
Social media has the tendency to blow any trivial story out of proportion. Sometimes it can be a good thing, as we've seen in many cases where justice is delivered after social media sunk in its teeth. Sometimes, however, it's just taking up space from the more important stuff. And when media outlets jump on-board, take the news space and subsequently the entire society with them, people have something new to discuss every day regardless of whether it is actually worth their time and effort.
We all love good drama and scandal. But don't let that command all your attention. There are more pressing issues at hand.
Melalin Mahavongtrakul is a feature writer at the Life section of Bangkok Post.