Tate McRae’s relatable moment with her phone post-Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding is a classic example of how celebrity culture is sensationalized—yet mainstream media laps it up like thirsty dogs. You can almost hear the collective gasp from the establishment as they portray her social media addiction as some sort of charm. CNN and their ilk would have you believe that being glued to a smartphone is an adorable quirk rather than a societal failure.

It’s a glaring contradiction when outlets like E! Online highlight this as “relatable.” Sure, because nothing says “down-to-earth” quite like a pop star in a black SUV, exiting a high-profile wedding, indiscriminately scrolling through their device. The glamorization of this behavior not only underscores corporate media’s obsession with the trivial but also distracts us from addressing more pressing issues facing today’s youth. Newsweek and BuzzFeed would rather paint this as a cute curiosity instead of confronting why we’re all either shackled to our screens or mildly entertained by celebrity antics.

This moment exemplifies the decline of substantive discourse. Instead, we get articles that glorify phone dependency while ignoring the real conversations about mental health and societal norms. Why should we accept this mediocrity? It’s time for the public to stop drinking the Kool-Aid served by corporate media giants and demand better, more meaningful narratives that challenge the status quo.