The Social Life and Times of Public Figures

Reading the morning news as I always do, I saw one of the headlines screaming something about how Toronto’s mayor was taking a vacation.

Aside from it being none of our business – and it isn't all that uncommon during the holiday season to take a holiday – this got me thinking about how invasive technology has become, especially to public figures.

Granted, those in the public’s eye have always been chased, hounded and even stalked by the media. But thanks to technology, now anyone with a smartphone, a tablet, a laptop or other mobile device can instantly dig up dirt on anyone – famous or not.

You can Google, tweet, friend, follow, fan or foursquare anyone these days. And in the case of the latter, you can show up where someone is, to snap a photo for Instagram.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford hasn't had a lot of success with the mainstream press. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with his policies or politics, there’s no question that he isn't very media savvy. He’s rough around the edges, says what he thinks, and does what he wants despite being advised otherwise.

And he’s paid the price – the media constantly chases Mayor Ford, just waiting for that “gotcha” moment to splash all over the local and national news.

However, where and when the mayor of Canada’s largest city takes a vacation is going too far. Everyone deserves time off. It isn't as if the city, the country or the world for that matter, will fall apart because any one of us takes a holiday.

Yet we know when famous people take time off, do wild crazy things, get into bar fights, or worse – go to jail for just being screw-ups.

Not that the life and times of Lindsey Lohan, Justin Beiber, or your local city or town’s mayor really means anything to you or me.

Famed scholar and media critic Noam Chomsky calls all of this unnecessary attention in the media on famous people a distraction from the issues that really do matter.

Chomsky is right – the time we spend chasing public figures while they vacation or do whatever else they do, takes us away from our own families and friends.

And thanks to social media, it is even easier to be distracted by other people’s problems, instead of solving our own.

Maybe that’s why we take so much time to fan, friend and follow people that we really never really know – because it distracts us from the harsh reality of our own lives?