We stared in horror as oil gushed unchecked from BP's ruptured well for months, we might have raised a beer as Steven Slater took his epic slide down a JetBlue ramp, and we feverishly refreshed Facebook as Mark Zuckerberg took Time's Person of the Year Honors. but mostly, writes Ted Anthony for the AP, we watched. "And why not? Because that is what we do in this Brave New World, this modern age of unprecedented and unsettling wonder: We watch."
"In a nation riven by disagreements and political conflicts and niche markets and on-demand isolation, this unites us: Hungrily, aggressively, sometimes stupefyingly, we watch. If you needed any more evidence that we've become a nation of watchers, look no further than 2010." For "the weird, wonderful, horrifying, mesmerizing images" that we watch this year, click through the gallery above.
(More spillcam stories.)