Many of us in our interactions with celebrities tend to forget that they are also human with flesh and blood! Yes, we see them on our TV screens, smiling at us from billboards or doing whatever it is they do on social media and they seem untouchable. Their seemingly perfect like begins to make us believe that they are aliens from another universe but that’s just not true. They are humans too.
In recent times, there has been a steady rise in the hate and anger directed at famous people, both large and small. You can hardly read the news these days without having a celebrity in an argument with someone either about personal life decisions, or something worth arguing about. Basically, everyone always has an opinion whether true or false.
Over the weekend, Nigerian singer turned politician, Banky W was the brunt of social media ridicule for daring to stand up for himself. A woman identified as Miriam Shehu had alleged that the entertainer took N57 million from President
Banky W was soon the subject of online bullying and the hastag “Gorimpa Chris Brown” was soon on almost every Twitter user’s lips. In less than an hour, there were thousands of tweets with spiteful and hate comments directed at the singer that one can only be left wondering what he had done to warrant all the negative attention.
Cyber-bulling happens to everyone, even the “unbreakable” and “untouchable” celebrities. This type of cyber-bulling needs to be addressed because it seems like nobody has the care to stop it. It may appear that celebrities can go through the day and not see any hate, but it’s very apparent, especially if there is a hashtag accompanied with the hate. We need to understand that the celebrities are people just like us who also feel hurt and pain. That they have a bigger audience and platform does not mean they are devoid of emotions. Truthfully, they are more susceptible to bullying and hate because they are so often in the spotlight that there are so many different opinions of them, from love to pure hatred.
In a 2018 post, teen actress, Regina Daniels addressed the issue of celebrities constantly getting bashed writing,
“Pls I took out one minute from my time to say this from my heart. Celebrities are human, we have feelings like every normal person, we struggle to make it in life, not everyone is born star, its gift from God, while some struggle and made it in life.”
We must do better to be better and remind ourselves that social media is supposed to be used to connect people, not to spread hate and there is a lot of good that social media can be used for. Before you write your next celebrity, ask yourself, “Is it worth saying?” “Is it kind?” and “If it was said to me, how will I feel?”
