The dark side of the viral effect - Susan Boyle

Tweet By now, you might be one of the 65 million people who've watched the youtube clip of Susan Boyle—the 47-yr-old Scot who never had a French kiss—sing "I Dreamed a Dream" on Britain's Got Talent. The cameras course over the crowd. People in the audience who had previously rolled their eyes now grab their mouths. People who had laughed now gawk with disbelief. My God, they think - and we the youtube viewers rhythmically intone - talent can come from something ugly.



But with sudden fame comes something more. Is the pressure getting to Susan? She has apparently been involved in a second f*** word tantrum - this time at police. Boyle stormed off in tears as her entourage and police quickly followed. No arrests were made. Boyle went back to her room after the incident. Her rep tells London's The Times that the incident was caused by a nosy and persistent reporter. But another incident had her spewing the F-bomb at a TV screen in the bar of the same hotel while watching Morgan praise her 12-year-old competition on the show.

"From what I hear," Morgan said on CBS' "The Early Show" of the incident, "she's been in tears the last two days. She even threatened to leave the show yesterday at one stage because of the sheer amount of pressure on her. He adds: "The hotel she's in is crawling in tourists, crawling in the media.

There is also something disturbing about the collective rejection-embrace-elevation of Susan Boyle. There is the element of self-congratulation in the viral spread of this link around the Web, the idea that we, the secondary viewers, the judges of those who are judging, are far more evolved. There is the clip itself, suspiciously ready-made for online consumption: A 7-minute movie, slick and pithy in its perfect execution of the underdog narrative. (That something like "Rocky" took two hours to tell now seems antediluvian.) There is the classic David vs. Goliath subplot, the primal satisfaction of seeing the bully (Cowell) slain by such a seemingly inferior force.

Susan on sudden fame: "I won't be lonely anymore".
This reminds me of the fact that people feel the most alone when in a group with people they don't know...

All information in this post where taken from these Source's: ChicagoTribune, PsychologyToday, LaTimes, NYPost