-
lol brilliant title
Yeahhhhh, I know who you’re talking about, I’ve met them and I think that, once you get to the bottom of it, that they are down to earth, great people.
I do think you’re on to something. Because I don’t believe that whenever they started fishing (whether it was last year or the last century) that dressing up fish and slinging them in front of the camera was their primary goal. It was probably just having fun fishing.
And that evolved (or devolved) into something else.
But I do think what you’re seeing in their fishing reports is a bit of audience capture, a symptom of social media use and one of the less-obvious realities of creating content for the public. I’ll explain.
It’s a safe bet that the content they’re making has been encouraged by the amount of positive feedback they’ve received for posting it. They did something cute, a bunch of people liked it, and they were “rewarded”. Now they do it again and again.
But, if they never had that medium, or never had that feedback, then we’d see something different in what they post. For example, if they couldn’t post pictures, or if pictures were in a less ubiquitous format (i.e. RodnReel) then they probably wouldn’t play dress up.
Another example: if Quentin Tarantino grew up in the 2010s, we’d probably have a radically different film maker, because the content he made would have been subject to influence by likes, views and algorithmic suggestions.
I don’t think anything of the sort was on his mind when he made Pulp Fiction. He just made what he thought was the best film possible with what he had (and that film(s) has stood the test of time).
So, I’d say that the folks you’re talking about have been audience captured to some extent or another. This is a perilous road, because it’s easy to have things misperceived.
A good example within the realm of fishing is a younger Kevin Van Dam. During a high-stakes tournament, on live TV, he would catch fish that wouldn’t keep and unceremoniously throw them back in the water and cast back out.
That’s the logical thing to do in order to get the bait back in the water and catch fish that win, but in the eyes of viewers he appeared to be disrespectful to the fish.
Of course he wasn’t, but the appearance was there and the response he got from people was enough to motivate him to gently place fish in the water for the release. It looked dumb, but it kept people off his back (which is wildly important to sponsors).
I’ve had something of a similar experience and have been forced to adjust in one way or another. Trust me, I understand.
I don’t think the folks in question mean to be ill towards speckled trout, but their content is certainly a product of the Facebook environment and they’re probably not fully aware of all perceptions people could have.
