All my fun crowd pictures are blurry so thank goodness for Photo by PxHere

I want someone to hear me; I bet you do, too. But we’re up against a society that’s so loud and boisterous, and everyone’s clamoring for attention. Look at me, Mom, please?

None of us look like role models, do we? But we still scratch our heads and wonder, “Where have all the role models gone?”

And then my dear friend said in her ever so wise way in the comments for Blinded By Willie O’Ree, “They were easier to spot back then.”

Of course, her comment got me thinking and spilled into today’s muse. We used to know who our role models were (hence they were easy enough to find).

Good luck figuring that out today. We have a new hero on the hour now that we all have cameras in our pockets.

A month ago, it made the news that a flight attendant held a scared passenger’s hand for 10 minutes, and someone caught that moment on her phone.

(I should have thought of that myself!)

But that hero made way for the Dad who’s book went viral because his seven-year-old kid gave him a plug on TikTok.

(Does anyone have a cute kid to spare for a mere 17 seconds?)

Journalism’s no longer in the hands of professionals. (Thank goodness, or I wouldn’t be able to write this muse).

So I’m not complaining; I’m just confused. What are the rules anyway?

Call me old-fashioned, but I learned the old journalism adage: if it leads, it bleeds.

So, it went like this:

1000 dead in a far away country=
100 dead in your country=
10 dead in your state=
1 dead in your local community.

Now? That formula's rather morbid (and outdated).

Death has nothing to do with what's trending these days. In fact I wonder what are the J school teachers teaching now instead?

It could be something like this: If it’s a social trend, media rules end.

So let’s try this formula on for size:

1K caught on the phone of a social media nobody=
100 caught on the phone of someone with a good following=
10 caught on the phone of someone with more than 1K followers=
1 celebrity or TikTok star, preferably caught on their own phone.

So, will the real leaders, teachers, heroes, and role models please stand?

They’ve been standing all along; only the other role models have already toppled them over and someone caught it on their phone and trended it. Luckily no one died, so there was nothing for the journalists to report. Rumor has it someone’s mom was calling them.