Transformation.

Privacy is a funny thing; articles that purport to have something to do with privacy are often just the mostly-uninteresting ramblings of a deeply paranoid person. With that in mind, the New York Times Magazine, which until this week may have passed for a news source, published an article this week making an excellent argument for its emergence as the pseudointellectual answer to People.

Oh, oh, why?

In this article, this 10-page article, this 10-page article in the New York Times Magazine, the following is the totality of issues discussed:

* Online journals (a.k.a. "Blogging")
* The cult of quasi-celebrities (The "Blogosphere")
* Endless, endless whining
* Constant pleading for attention
And, finally, and most relevantly,
* Narcissism masquerading as a deep philosophical statement about privacy.

This is essentially an article about modern celebrity gossip, cloaked in fundamentally misleading language. The most profound thing this article has to say about privacy is "gee whiz, looks like nobody really likes it when other people say bad things about them!"

Here, the New York Times has essentially published a boring page from a 14-year-old girl's diary. This is published in place of an article about an issue that has any bearing whatsoever on the real world. The fabrication of importance created by e-gossip journalists is not any more frustrating than the slow shift away from the news covering the news to covering glitzy fashion, or to the media's current tendency to treat even candidates for President as the latest top Hollywood star, rather than as a politician. But it is certainly still infuriating.