Buzzkill

One of my pet peeves is when people pretend to be huge supporters of something or some person they know nothing about.  

This phenomenon usually occurs when said person gets caught up in a wave of hype and just jumps in, for fear of being out of the loop. 

When this happens with something cool, like "The Expendables," it is not the worst thing in the world I guess, as long as they actually become true fans in time.  However, it is incredibly annoying when people jump on the bandwagon for something or someone that they don't even commit to later on.  One example of this is kind of cool in small doses, but its combination of duration, false admiration and a general underwhelming nature makes it really grind my gears. 

Every summer, a good-sized segment of our generation hails the return of the Discovery Channel programming block affectionately known as "Shark Week" to television.  People talk about Shark Week on Facebook and among friends as if it were the return of a marine Mardi Gras (OMG SHARK WEEK STARTS 2NITE!!), when, actually, no reasonable person could or should watch it for more than an hour.  

Conservatively, I'd say you could peg me down for viewing one shark show every four to six months, and I would be more than satisfied.  Anything more than that, and I feel like I'm going to experience a little shark overkill.  

A large part of my frustration with Shark Week is that the only reason anyone accepts it is because other people do.  For instance, if I were to independently watch a few hours of television every night about bears, I would deservedly be compared to Dwight Schrute or the Double Rainbow guy from YouTube and ostracized from general society.  However, people do love relishing in this sort of artificial irony when given a socially acceptable medium to do so.  

The programming lineup for this year's Shark Week perfectly sums up the useless nature of Discovery Channel's supposed brainchild.  Check out the titles to four of the six new specials served up this year: "Into the Shark Bite," "Shark Attack Survival Guide," "Shark Bite Beach" and "Shark Bites: Adventures in Shark Week."  I cannot fathom the amount of exciting differences that must abound between these four features. Shark Week is nothing if not diverse.  

While those seven days in late-July/early-August are not the worst of the year, they are certainly nowhere near the top of my list for causes to celebrate. I wish everyone who champions things like Shark Week, Betty White and the Yankees — but just for the ALCS and World Series — would pump their brakes a little.  

There's nothing wrong with having a positive view of these, but if you're not a true fan, don't just jump on the bandwagon.  In the immortal words of Fleetwood Mac, "You could go your own way."