The mote in your public eye

This post was meant to be up 16 days ago. I never finished it and haven't until now because I didn't think it was "current" enough. To hell with "current"! This is real talk.

As a youngster, I dreamed constantly of being rich, famous and adored. It was an alluring and exciting fantasy, but still just a fantasy. Had I known back then what being in the public eye would mean in 2009, I would never have even dared to dream it. In this, the internet age, it would seem that the cost of being in the public eye is wholly disproportionate to the benefits.

Today, the web was abuzz with news of Rihanna's 'tell all' interview with Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America about the abuse she suffered at the hands of Chris Brown. There was a flurry of tweets flying back and forth across Twitter as people threw out their own opinions on the matter. Some claimed to have no sympathy for the 21-year-old starlet because she chose only to speak out months after the fact and (coincidentally - or not) on the eve of the release of her new album.

At virtually the same time, MTV was announcing an its own news special featuring Chris Brown speaking on the very same subject. Again, speculation abounded about whether this was a stab at pushing up his sales.

Now, as far as I know, only Rihanna and Chris know the full details of what happened in that car and in the few months that have passed since that night. Yet, the whole world and its cousin feels perfectly entitled to not only comment but pass judgement on the motives and intentions for every move these two kids have made ever since. The marvel that is the web has made it possible for anyone with an internet connection to have a voice on the matter and potentially influence the voices of others, negative or otherwise.

That's fantastic for us, but what about them?

21 feels almost like a lifetime ago for me, but not long enough to forget that I did a lot of stupid shit! A lot. I didn't know very much about life so I didn't always make the very best decisions for my life. I don't know about you, but if tens of thousands of people all had something to say about my every choice of hairstyle, boyfriend or fast food meal back then, I'd find it a little difficult to stand. And if I'd been through or done something really bad, I wouldn't appreciate being judged on how I handled the matter at that emotionally immature age, either.

And it's not just them. Barack Obama was nominated for and won the Nobel Peace Prize and people were mad as hell. He came into the White House with the brightest and most progressive and positive idealism that that country had seen in a long while and was applauded for it; then 9 months later, a panel of dudes somewhere (for their own reasons) deem it fit to bestow this honour on him and all the rest of us can do is point out every possible reason why he's unworthy.

Thankfully, Obama is a grown-ass man. But I don't care how old you are - that's gotta sting! He's on Twitter. He knows what folks were saying.

Yes. Criticise. Don't take anything at face value. Question everything. Of course, these things we must do. Let's just not forget that just because the information comes to us virtually, doesn't mean there isn't a real, living, breathing, feeling human being in there somewhere.