  Balloon Boy: When the Net is full of hot air
Reported by Industry Standard on Monday, 19 October 2009 (on October 19, 2009)
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You may not have noticed, but several important things happened in the country late last week. I don't know what they were either, because I was too busy following the Balloon Boy saga.
This is the latest example of how 24/7 cable news networks and the Web can conspire to create a laserlike focus on one thing, regardless of its actual importance. And the problem only seems to be getting worse.
[ Check out Eric Knorr's take on the celebrity keyword-fest and the problem with Web publishing, in InfoWorld's Modernizing IT blog. ]
How obsessed were people with Balloon Boy? At one point last Thursday, 18 of the top 20 search terms on Google Trends had something to do with the Heene family and/or runaway helium balloons. Within hours someone had created a snarky (though minimalist) Web site called WhereIsBalloonBoy?, which has now clocked more than 28,000 hits. As I write this, some three days later, "balloon boy" is still a trending topic on Twitter.
A Cringester who works in an international finance firm shared the following online chat session from last Thursday. Though he was not a participant -- he says it was a coworker -- he swears it's completely accurate (however, I did obscure the real name of his colleague to protect his privacy, and I cleaned up some typos).
15:21:09 BLOOMBERG HELP DESK : hello
15:21:51 BLOOMBERG HELP DESK : how can I assist?
15:22:03 JOE USER : any ideas on how we can get this kid out of the hot air balloon over Colorado?
15:22:08 JOE USER : b/c i am totally consumed by this
15:22:22 JOE USER : and no one at my work is offering anything sensible
15:23:07 BLOOMBERG HELP DESK : I wish I knew of a simple solution
15:23:25 JOE USER : I mean is this helium going to slowly leak out?
15:23:36 JOE USER : or should we send the Seals in with some chutes?
15:24:01 JOE USER : and where are the parents in all this. I'm sorry to be venting. I just feel like I don't have anyone to talk to
15:24:38 BLOOMBERG HELP DESK : please talk to me about it
15:24:49 BLOOMBERG HELP DESK : I feel the pain.. I wonder that the kid is thinking up there
15:25:00 JOE USER : this issue is bigger than just kids in hot air balloons
15:25:12 JOE USER : its a lack of parenting in this country, its despicable
15:26:25 BLOOMBERG HELP DESK : I'm sure the parents will never leave the kid alone
15:26:47 JOE USER : i mean what did they have this balloon tied down with? 4 lbs test berkely trilene?
15:26:56 JOE USER : like i have on my trout rod?
15:28:58 BLOOMBERG HELP DESK : I'm sure we will find a lot of answers once this situation is resolved
15:29:17 JOE USER : 6 year olds cannot hardly wipe their own bums let alone climb in a homemade hot air balloon and friggin set it free
15:30:12 JOE USER : in other news apparently the dad was on wife swap, so now things are adding up. the dad, as if building a hot air balloon like a boy scout isnt bad enough, is a scum bag
15:31:06 BLOOMBERG HELP DESK : karma
15:35:16 BLOOMBERG HELP DESK : [Joe], hopefully the kid will be fine and you can get back to work. Is there anything else I can assist you with?
15:35:47 JOE USER : too much to handle in 25 mins before the bell. but i thank you, kindly
15:36:15 JOE USER : HEY WE GOT IT DOWN!!!!!!
15:36:24 BLOOMBERG HELP DESK : NICE
15:36:55 BLOOMBERG HELP DESK : That's great news, hopefully the markets will close high
15:37:00 BLOOMBERG HELP DESK : Thank you for using bloomberg help!
15:37:01 JOE USER : exactly
15:37:03 JOE USER : TY
15:37:17 JOE USER : you'd make a great psychiatrist
15:37:46 BLOOMBERG HELP DESK : thank you
Normally I wouldn't give this much of a blog post over to a reader; it probably violates my contract with InfoWorld -- or would, if that cocktail napkin hadn't dissolved a long time ago. But I thought it was a) a hoot, and b) a very telling example of how totally wrapped up people can become in a drama like this, even a fake one, when the media gets saturated with it. They feel compelled to talk to somebody about it, even if it's just an anonymous online support tech.
Of course, in the old days we'd huddle around our TV sets for historical events -- the Kennedy assassination, the first moon walk, 9/11, Katrina. It was a way of coming together as a nation, however briefly.
Now we gather on the Web for a publicity stunt by a family desperate to get on reality TV. In a paid interview with Gawker, apparent co-conspirator Robert Thomas lays this out as a hoax that was months in preparation. Now authorities may be looking to send him and Richard Heene up the river -- but without a paddle or a balloon.
The more everyone leaps on the same story -- desperate for viewers or a slice of Web traffic -- the less likely it becomes that stories with real import will get covered. (The White House, for example, was pretty steamed that coverage of President Obama's New Orleans town hall meeting got bumped by the Falcon Heene mocku-drama.) The more easily we are manipulated by stories with the right elements in them -- a child in danger, an apparently grieving family, and most of all, compelling video footage -- the more likely it will happen again. And again, and again.
Somewhere, PT Barnum is smiling.
Did you get suckered in by Balloon Boy too? E-mail me: cringe@infoworld.com.
Take the InfoWorld news quiz.
This story, "Balloon Boy: When the Net is full of hot air," was originally published at InfoWorld.com.
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