Waves of trivialities

I have noticed that the media are flooding us with trivialities. On the cheap we get suffocated by endless stories about this murderer or that vane actress or one more hyped up election campaign soundbite. What's going on? Have we lost our perspective? We are lunching on the familiar of whom we love to hate, all fanned by the words of our newscasters. Are all the stories we get through the media worth more than what we experience in our private lives? I see that the real stories are right here at home. They evolve and they hang there with little consequence for now. Neighbors are fading because we are too busy. It is more important that a presidential candidate's former aides are leaving to support the current favorite, like rats leaving the sinking ship. Maybe that's understandable, in face of the need to secure a job in a future administration. Is that what we want to be, though? Do we want to be mercenaries looking only for who pays us best for our loyalties? Television has become our surrogate friend, and companion and distraction. We look at our sports teams as our vicarious tribes, our lost families, our nation's hope. But real life goes on underneath, unnoticed and unloved. There are real people out there full of fear that reality has left no one to care for them, and they are going to react sooner or later. I hope it is not too late for us to turn the tide.