{"id":753,"date":"2015-11-11T19:18:21","date_gmt":"2015-11-12T03:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/?p=753"},"modified":"2015-11-11T19:18:21","modified_gmt":"2015-11-12T03:18:21","slug":"birds-of-a-feather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/?p=753","title":{"rendered":"Birds of a Feather"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Let&#8217;s all take a moment to appreciate birds flying in unison together. \u00a0Here are a couple of videos.<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6NcGn3Qs1xA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s another one.<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eakKfY5aHmY\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Isn&#8217;t that nice and relaxing?<\/p>\n<p>Now let&#8217;s talk about how people are just like those birds, moving in flocks together\u00a0via the tweets and twerps of social media.<\/p>\n<p>Before we get ahead of ourselves, let us consider how birds and other animals manage to move together as they do. \u00a0I perused <a href=\"https:\/\/www.audubon.org\/magazine\/march-april-2009\/explaining-bird-flocks\" target=\"_blank\">this lengthy article<\/a>, which talked about several different theories that have cropped up over the years. \u00a0Here is <a href=\"http:\/\/earthsky.org\/earth\/how-do-flocking-birds-move-in-unison\" target=\"_blank\">another article<\/a> that is a bit more succinct.<\/p>\n<p>Since you&#8217;re probably not going to click either of those links, I&#8217;ll give you a quick summary. \u00a0The birds on the edge of the flock react to something, such as the appearance of food or a predator, which\u00a0initiates an action. \u00a0The first bird&#8217;s neighbors mimic the action, and the rest of the flock, always anticipating changes, reacts quickly. \u00a0A wave of reaction rolls over the entire flock, giving the appearance of a dance in the sky, like a feathered chorus line.<\/p>\n<p>It only takes one bird to initiate the action. \u00a0And usually, that bird is on the edge of the flock. \u00a0Keep these ideas in mind.<\/p>\n<p>Now let&#8217;s look at people. \u00a0Specifically, let&#8217;s look at something I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;re as sick of hearing about as I am: Starbuck&#8217;s red cups.<\/p>\n<p>Do you know anyone that actually cared about the cups at Starbucks before the supposed controversy began? \u00a0I&#8217;m sure a <a href=\"http:\/\/time.com\/4109109\/starbucks-cup-itsjustacup\/?xid=time_socialflow_facebook\" target=\"_blank\">few<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/money.cnn.com\/2015\/11\/11\/news\/dunkin-donuts-christmas-coffee-cup\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">people<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/opinion\/2015\/11\/09\/its-starbucks-coffee-cup-america-not-holy-grail.html\" target=\"_blank\">have<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usmagazine.com\/celebrity-news\/news\/dunkin-donuts-unveils-holiday-themed-coffee-cups-amid-starbucks-drama-20151111\" target=\"_blank\">opinions<\/a> now that our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/blogs\/moneybox\/2015\/11\/10\/starbucks_red_cup_controversy_only_shows_that_the_war_on_christmas_keeps.html\" target=\"_blank\">news<\/a> and social feeds are full of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/entry\/starbucks-cups-designs_56423c57e4b0411d3072c05a\" target=\"_blank\">trivial<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/news\/opinion\/huppke\/ct-political-correctness-huppke-20151111-story.html\" target=\"_blank\">news<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/bay-area-living\/ci_29104927\/starbucks-cup-brewhaha-coffee-tea-or-meme\" target=\"_blank\">articles<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/memegenerator.net\/instance\/54135566\" target=\"_blank\">memes<\/a>. \u00a0But who cared before <a href=\"http:\/\/www.upworthy.com\/ellen-degeneres-weighed-in-on-the-starbucks-cup-controversy-and-yes-she-nailed-it\" target=\"_blank\">Ellen<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/entry\/bristol-palin-starbucks-cup_5643937ae4b045bf3ded6ca8\" target=\"_blank\">Bristol Palin<\/a> weighed in on the matter?<\/p>\n<p>Why are we so distracted by something so trivial?<\/p>\n<p>Because we anticipated something like this. \u00a0Before the red cups were in the news, people began posting memes about Christmas being celebrated too early. \u00a0We posted memes about the evils of Christmas decorations and music before Halloween. \u00a0And we posted memes about the war on Christmas, and the virtues of people saying Merry Christmas to each other.<\/p>\n<p>The pump was primed for a manufactured controversy. \u00a0And so now we have it, in all of its pointless, cardboard glory.<\/p>\n<p>The reality is that most people don&#8217;t look at the cup containing their decaf soy latte. \u00a0And when they do, the cardboard sleeve is probably blocking most of the cup, anyway. \u00a0And also, no one cares, except a few people on the edge of the flock.<\/p>\n<p>I, for one, will drink my overpriced coffee with peace in my heart, happy to be blessed with good health and a loving family.<\/p>\n<p>But for just a moment, I took a step back and looked at all of us, flailing about, following our neighbors in a complicated social media dance. \u00a0Like ten thousand starlings at sunset, we reacted and moved as a single flock.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike watching the birds, I find very little beauty or peace in the way we are moving together. \u00a0I just find it tiring, and a little bit depressing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let&#8217;s all take a moment to appreciate birds flying in unison together. \u00a0Here are a couple of videos. Here&#8217;s another one. Isn&#8217;t that nice and relaxing? Now let&#8217;s talk about how people are just like those birds, moving in flocks together\u00a0via the tweets and twerps of social media. Before we get ahead of ourselves, let [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=753"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":754,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753\/revisions\/754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}