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Why are Celebrities Targets for Haters?
The suicide of U.K. reality TV celebrity Caroline Flack has put a spotlight on the range and power of negative media. Flack’s case is both tragic and complicated, but a lot of blame is being leveled at media, from tabloids to haters and shamers. Can a celebrity suicide shed light on the dangers of a cancel culture? Whether or not public humiliation was to blame in this case, the emerging and unhealthy acceptance of public “calling out,” name-calling and “canceling” people across social and public media channels can have devastating results — celebrity or not.
Celebrities get a lot of media attention — it goes with the territory since celebrity by definition requires widespread public awareness of an individual. Celebrity is social validation on a large scale. Popularity confers a level of authority through social proof — we assume that someone that is admired by many must be worth paying attention to.
Before you pine for millions of followers, however, remember that social media attention, as I have written in the past, is not guaranteed to be positive. Public means all kinds of public, not just supportive, well-meaning fans.
Humans are social animals. Social connection is essential to our mental and physical wellbeing. Social feedback is one of the ways we navigate our environments. Everyone, celebrity or not, wants to be…
