[alexander_busek]

I think the French have an excellent word for that. Popular culture and the media are turning things that used to be somewhat interesting into things thoroughly *banal*.

I'd reverse that: The media are taking things that are thoroughly banal and dressing them up and presenting them to us as though they should be "interesting."

Regards,

[Jamestown1630]

I thought it was ‘interesting’ when it was personal to individuals.

But it got really boring when they made it into ‘social movement’ and ‘cause celebre’, and lumped ‘unusual’ people into an ‘identity’ - as if they were all cookie-cutter products.