Because when Fox News’ Dr. Keith Ablow speaks, we listen.
It must be sports week. On Wednesday Ablow weighed in on the Lance Armstrong interview with Oprah Winfrey, saying for Armstrong to achieve redemption for lying about taking performance-enhancing drugs, he needed to “take our breath away” with a strong confession. Today, it’s about Manti Te’o, the college football star who it has been revealed likely lied about having a girlfriend who died of cancer.
In typical Ablow fashion, the psychiatrist is ready to diagnose and treat Te’o in public via his FoxNews.com column:
… Te’o needs psychological help. One version of the story paints him vulnerable enough and naïve enough to declare his love and devotion publicly for someone he had never even met, nor Skyped with, let alone kissed. That version has him grieving her death like a devoted husband—despite never having laid eyes on her, nor touched her. The other version of the story paints him as a co-conspirator in fraud and deception, willing to manipulate the feelings of millions of people for his own pleasure or advancement—a younger, even sicker version of Lance Armstrong.
And either way, Te’o is the poster boy for a phenomenon I have been writing about for years, and which threatens our culture in a dramatic way: The erosion of reality and embrace of fiction via social networking, “reality” TV and technology.
Call it The Delusion Disease. …
Social media, “reality” TV and technology have infected and intoxicated us such that we won’t—or, even worse—we can’t face facts, anymore.
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NigelTufnel
Jan. 20, 2013 at 8:55pmIf Teo’ needs psychological help then so does 100% of the American youth. My sister-in-law married a guy 9 years ago that she only met 3 times in person. How do you think that ended up? What’s worse is that she continues to live and completely base her life off of the fantasy world she has created through social media. Many have pointed out the obvious to her and she fails to see it. Worse, it’s becoming painfully obvious to us that she cannot so easily reverse this trend. When you become more of an avatar than a real person, hurt and pain are a lot easy to dole out without reprocussion.
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Mapache
Jan. 20, 2013 at 7:12amI believe that Dr. Ablow jumped the gun on this one and has completely misread the situation. He needs to take into account that Teo is a devote LDS and as such, probably was not looking to ‘jump the bones” so to speak of the person he thought was his soulmate. Also, the fact that there was an ACTUAL female involved in the phone calls give lie to the ‘imaginary’ girlfriend. He did not make this girlfriend up out of thin air but rather she was a creation of two (or more) low-lifes that scammed him. I think Dr. Ablow owes Manti T’eo an apology.
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asybot12
Jan. 19, 2013 at 7:04pmAs a psychiatrist did Keith pick his own last name?
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JustMeHere_01
Jan. 19, 2013 at 1:26amThis is too funny. I attempted to post a comment and after 15 minutes I attempted to repost it and got the message that it was a duplicate post and yet it isn’t posted. Good job Blaze.
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JustMeHere_01
Jan. 19, 2013 at 1:24amAdd your comments
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JustMeHere_01
Jan. 19, 2013 at 1:20amI haven’t looked deeply into this story. It affects not one iota of my life. I do know that several years ago that I used chat to socialize and met people that I thought were real or that I could consider them friends.
If you are capable then you will be wary and pick up things that alert you. I was not a young college student at the time so I was always cautious and alert. Yes it could be very easy to become absorbed in this world if you allow yourself to be controlled by your feelings.
As an adult I knew what I wanted and as an adult I also knew that there are people that will pretend to be what they are not. I can recall at least two times where people had their friend come into a chat room and notify the people that this person had passed away.
lol. Then a few weeks later on separate occasions these people suddenly re-appeared. It is chat and a make believe world. How one deals with it is up to that person. I had no problems with it because I already had signals that they were a fake.
It takes observations and awareness.
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RobbieTLHughie
Jan. 21, 2013 at 2:05amMind you that doesn’t mean that you should automatically assume that anyone you meet online is an incredible fraud, there’s easy ways to disprove it instantly… Skype, Facetime, a phone call. Don’t be overly suspicious, just don’t be gullible and stupid.
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