Gawker's writing can be hit-or-miss, but you gotta give it to 'em: they can craft a headline when the mood strikes. For example... Cat with Eyebrows Takes Instagram by Storm. The cat with eyebrows (his name is Sam) first sprang to fame on Reddit, but redditors aren't usually as good with catchy headlines.
When you look at an Instagram of a cat with eyebrows, you're not looking at a cat with eyebrows. You're looking into a mirror. I'm not saying that you look like a cat; only that you (and I and everyone we know) use the Internet to pursue and discover small bites of new information.
By "new information", I mean "something you didn't know or understand before". It doesn't have to be something useful or pertinent to your everyday life. In this case, we're talking about cat photos on the Web, a major part of the average online diet.
Obviously, the Web isn't a newspaper, so it's no surprise that we don't use it in the same way. Over time, that altered reading-relationship has mutated our concept of news, which I personally define as "something new about something I care about" (thanks, NowPublic, for that).
Okay, that's it. Nothing too deep an' meaningful. Just a cat with eyebrows.
But hey, while you're here... how about monkeys throwing a raccoon into space? You're welcome.
