3/9/07, 5:13 pm EST

Assignment Eight Finalist: Auburn Scallon on Passing Judgement

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Note: This is not an official Rolling Stone article. What follows is a submission to the “I’m From Rolling Stone” writing competition.

Thou Shalt Judge

by Auburn Scallon
Age: 27

We have become a society obsessed with passing judgment. Now, this may not be a brand new phenomenon- I’m sure that cavemen in cougar loin clothes lived in bigger caves and dragged hotter cavewomen around by their hair than those clothed in muskrat- but it has become increasingly more pronounced.

Reality TV gives us a nauseatingly wide-spread example of this trend. On media juggernauts like American Idol or Dancing With the Stars, their ongoing success is fueled when the opinions of trained industry “experts” are ultimately disregarded. Final judgment is left in the hands of viewers across the country, turning them into a large-scale popularity contests rather than actual talent competitions. The priority is ultimately about allowing voters to feel influential.

Social networking options even encourage us to judge our friends. On www.firstmonday.org, Nadine sums this up beautifully saying, “As a kid, you used your birthday party guest list as leverage on the playground. ‘If you let me play I’ll invite you to my birthday party.’ …Well today it’s the MySpace Top 8. It’s the new dangling carrot for gaining superficial acceptance. Taking someone off your Top 8 is your new passive aggressive power play when someone pisses you off.”

And c’mon, we all know the rising popularity of blogging isn’t based on the fascinating details of reading about a stranger’s everyday life. It’s in the opportunity to tear them down in the comments