Every now and then, a celebrity will trend On Twitter, for all the wrongs reasons, in full glare of the world. The Twitter mean streak knows no social class or where you are in the universe as we have just seen with the #PoorMichelle hashtags.
Sometime last year, there was a #SizweDhlomoKnows hashtag which trended for hours on end. In the case of Sizwe, I believe there was truth to the tweets as he is reportedly rude and acts as if he knows everything, allegedly that is.
Also, there was a #PearlThusiWasThere hashtag teasing her about being everywhere and doing everything on TV such as Isidingo, RGB, Live, Tropica Island of what-what etc etc.
Of course this is not what social media is for. It is there for key discussions and assists in mobilising communities to come together for a worthy common cause as we have seen with the Egyptian revolution which started on social media.
In fact, it was Twitter and Facebook that helped bring Egyptians together at Tahir Square, demanding resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. The tweet that started it all simply read: “I am going to Tahir Square”.
Celebrities find themselves becoming victims of Twitter hashtags which are mean-spirited coming from the fans. In the case of Pearl Thusi, she entertained the tweets, retweeted and replied to some of them. Later on that night, she tweeted she was gonna sleep since she had to do her radio show on Metro FM.
In the case of Destiny’s Child star Michelle Williams, she is being ridiculed about her Destiny days and how Kelly and Beyonce in particular, were always mean to her. What makes the situation very funny and presumably saddening for Michelle is that there are a whole lot of memes about it all.
#PoorMichelle tweeted saying #PoorMichelle … that’s not what my accountant said last time I checked but that did very little to stop her from trending worldwide.
There is even a whole Twitter handel called @PoorMichelle, very funny and how idle.
We live in an age where everything a celebrity says or fails to say on social media is news hence I am writing this article.
I am of the opinion that celebrities should take these kind of things with a pinch of salt and focus on the good such as Michelle who is focusing on her bank account balance. Celebrities first and foremost put themselves out there but they did not sign up for these kind of mean-spirited tweets. Having said that, the tweets are actually funny and there is no ignoring them.