I think it's safe to say that most people who use social media have been tripped up at least once over short video clips posted to places like Twitter and Facebook that, while provoking an emotional reaction, in reality, didn't represent the full picture because they were taken out of context.
The mainstream media has certainly been guilty of falling for them and in many cases filming and/or spreading them, though in many of those instances - like the Covington kids controversy - it was a case of them thinking it "proved" a narrative about conservatives, so the actual facts in their view were irrelevant.
Oftentimes Average Janes and Joes get caught up in this as well, thinking that a 15-second clip from a ten-minute segment tells us everything we need to know about how the interview went, and/or who the person is.
Sometimes they're right, like with pretty much every interview/speech clip of Joe Biden. Even when put into context, most of the time he still sounds like an incoherent gaffe machine who needs immediate intervention from his handlers.
But in other cases, they are wrong, which brings me to pop singer/icon Madonna, who on Wednesday went viral on Twitter thanks to an undated but presumably recent video clip that has now been watched over four million times and which shows her holding on to a railing during a concert performance.
Watch:
I’m glad to see that Madonna has a grab bar so she doesn’t fall. pic.twitter.com/rQyO5UQtrL
— Dr. Jebra Faushay (@JebraFaushay) January 3, 2024
Age jokes quickly followed.
Madonna is now 65 (and is also, of course, a raging leftist) but is still putting herself out there as an entertainer who can do what women half her age do. As a result, there has been a lot of discussion about how she dresses, as well as the surgery and other cosmetic procedures she appears to have had done in an effort to look younger.
I'm not here to argue whether what she's done to herself in the name of "entertainment" is right or wrong but rather how one should react when they view a short video clip of another person that they think confirms their opinions of that person one way or another but maybe didn't.
The 12-second clip of Madonna shown above is a classic example of this. Even though the word "age" wasn't mentioned in the tweet, it was implicit. In the video, it looks like Madge needs some help standing up because she's getting on up there in age, and gets tuckered out relatively easily.
What the video left out, though, was where Madonna was - in a moving box high above a concert crowd, singing and dancing, as Walk Away founder Brandon Straka pointed out:
The clip of Madonna in the tweet below has been trending all day, with people making fun of her and calling her old for grabbing on to a bar while dancing.
Nobody mentioned that she was in a moving box suspended 50 feet in the air with no wall behind her if she stepped backward.
Watch:
The clip of Madonna in the tweet below has been trending all day, with people making fun of her and calling her old for grabbing on to a bar while dancing.
— Brandon Straka (@BrandonStraka) January 4, 2024
Nobody mentioned that she was in a moving box suspended 50 feet in the air with no wall behind her if she stepped backward.… https://t.co/i7W7heShIX pic.twitter.com/qsnzebPSCU
Here's another one (language warning):
defending madonna here, cuz triflin’ hoe’s on this platform just make STUPID SHIT up (also bothered by the ageism… she’s still a legend).
— Joseph Kirkland (@thebrothaj) January 4, 2024
dumb asses got jokes, but failed to mention the fact that she’s dancing on a MOVING PLATFORM. 🤬#Madonna #MadonnaCelebrationTour https://t.co/Kzm7Xr98Sg pic.twitter.com/Cn4VaL3pqD
I mean the harness should have been a giveaway that she had to be in a situation that required a bar to hold on to and something else with which to help her in the event she had an accident, but a lot of people fell for the original framing.
This really isn't so much a defense of Madonna as it is a call for remembering to consider there could be context that's missing, because anyone can be taken out of context in a video clip, including you and me.
So laugh, gasp, or have whatever emotional reaction that springs forth when you watch micro-videos on social media, but also keep in mind that there just might be more to it than you think.
Flashback -->> WATCH: Bizarre Miranda Lambert Mini-Meltdown During Concert Had Some Fans Walking Out
