I just read a post by Golden Tate admonishing everyone for not knowing him, the real him, and basing their opinions of him on social media story lines. His presumption is that everyone who has an opinion of him doesn’t have a total grasp on the kind of person he is. Seems pretty obvious – I mean, he has no idea who I am, either.

Granted, I don’t have legions of bored sports fans and click-hungry bloggers feasting on my real or manufactured reputation. I also don’t have a job where I appear on national television with a side industry dedicated to analyzing what I’ve done. Well, I sort of do.

My work is scrutinized by customers, who let me know (mostly politely) when what I’ve done doesn’t meet their standards.

Also obvious is that my salary doesn’t come near Golden’s, which makes the goings on in my life automatically less interesting to the majority of Americans. If we’ve learned nothing else from the Kardashians, it’s that people enjoy scrutinizing every detail they’re offered of the rich. If there’s a dearth of details, they’re more than happy to manufacture some.

I bemoan the information age on occasion, and this is another good example of how it can be difficult to navigate. Golden posits something similar – anyone can say anything these days, and the fact that it was said gives it some level of credence. Might not be taken as absolute truth, but it still lingers. People hear what they want to hear and there’s a clear market for selling that questionable content.

So with all of this in mind, I’m still not sure what Tate’s point was. We should get to know him? He’s a good guy? We should just take his word on his personality? His post about himself precludes the possibility that I actually had him pegged as a mostly decent guy, but one who probably wouldn’t have had time for me in school, and someone I’m very unlikely to bump into in my daily life.

Really, he’s made the same assumptions of me that his article accuses me (all of us) of making about him.

And there’s the crux. As an anonymous reader/consumer, I have tons of information in front of me to sort through and filter. Luckily for Golden, I don’t concern myself with peoples’ personal lives unless they affect mine in some way, and his doesn’t. I hope he’s not confusing all that NFL attention for actual, personal interest from others.