‘Who dat? Who dat? Who dat say dey gonna beat them Saints?’ The ‘Who dat?’ cheer is one I’ve been hearing a lot of lately. Whether it’s plastered across my Facebook news feed or yelled by crazy fans decked in black and gold, the Saints are all the rage this year. Normal Saints talk in the past included Aaron Brooks throwing the ball backward or fans wearing paper bags on their heads, but this year it’s for a different reason – the Saints are winning. It’s easy to support a winner. It’s also easy to do because everyone else says it’s the right thing to do. There’s a term for this – it’s called ‘jumping on the bandwagon,’ and it’s plaguing the ‘Who Dat Nation.’ Bandwagon jumpers drive me crazy. Sure, it’s easy to support a team who wins, but a true fan shines through the dark times as well. Once something hits the national spotlight, it quickly gains support from people who normally could care less about it. Whether it’s rooting for the Saints, sending money to the Red Cross or wanting the head of a certain football coach, the majority of the crowd is nothing but sheep blindly following. Last semester, I wrote a column discussing the use of 3-D technology becoming more popular in movie theatres. Some may find this extra dimension fun and amusing, but I see it as nothing more than a gimmick. Doing research on that column posed a few difficulties because 3-D wasn’t a big topic in the media’s eyes. Fast-forward only three months, and 3-D seems to have taken the whole world by storm. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is a huge electronics expo held each January in Las Vegas. All the rage of CES 2010 was – you guessed it – 3-D. From 3-D televisions to 3-D video games, this form of viewing seems to have erupted in popularity and hype since my column last October. Two weeks ago, ESPN announced the release of the ‘ESPN 3D’ network this summer. Launching in June, ESPN 3-D will showcase a minimum of 85 live sporting events during its first year, starting with the 2010 World Cup. Sony is also in talks on teaming with Discovery to release the first 24-hour 3-D network sometime in 2011. Switching to gaming, talks of some of the major video-game developers and publishers speak of big name 3-D titles currently in development. Yet, I’ll continue to keep my feet planted firmly on the 2-D ground while more and more people are jumping on this 3-D bandwagon. I notice two major complaints when discussing 3-D with people. Many aren’t fans of having to wear glasses to watch their favorite shows or movies. Also, numerous people complained about acquiring terrible headaches after watching something three dimensional for too long. This NFL season, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones experimented with displaying the game in 3-D on the giant HD screen in new Cowboys stadium. The experiment lasted only six minutes and 50 seconds. The crowd of around 80,000 started booing and yelling because not everyone wore the proper headgear and instead saw a blurry image on the screen. Manufacturers are trying to get this current 3-D craze to catch on like high definition did in the early 2000s. But with everyone in the media still crying about the dying economy, how are they going to like having to buy new, expensive TVs just to have the illusion of Drew Brees throwing you a pass? This 3-D craze is still nothing but a gimmick and networks should be using their time and money to create better shows, not a different way to watch them. Or we can just wait for the next big thing to happen and let everyone jump on that bandwagon instead. Until that time I leave you with this… Who dat? — Adam Arinder is a 20-year-old communication studies junior from Baton Rouge. Follow him on Twitter@TDR_aarinder or e-mail him at [email protected]