It Gets Better: Who Cares?

No-one could say the idea behind the Youtube channel It Gets Better - where people post videos offering hope to lonely, possibly suicidal gay kids - is a bad idea.
But as the number of people who'd say they want gay teenagers to kill themselves is close to zero, its message can fall victim to banalification.
And its tragic subject gets buried under an avalanche of sentimental vomit.
Though maybe the real problem lies with the medium, not the message?
YouTube - despite its democratic potential - is the world's biggest vanity project.
It's no surprise that many of the videos posted on It Gets Better are just like the videos posted everywhere else on YouTube/MeTube; attention-seeking, solipsistic, self-aggrandizing, self-promoting.
This admirable project is now making the news, but often it's just to tell us the latest celebrities who've jumped on board.
Hell yes they care - but then again, who doesn't?
In the 1990 trial of Heavy Metal band Judas Priest - charged with putting hidden messages on an album that encouraged two young fans to commit suicide - the defence argued that if they knew how to record subliminal messages they'd make one that said; "Buy more of our records."
Heaven forfend that there are subliminal messages on any of the It Gets Better videos.
"Please don't kill yourself - we've got a new single out on Monday."