In recent years, the use of social media outlets by celebrities has increased dramatically. Seemingly just about every big name in the professional sports and entertainment has a Twitter account.
The age of formal press releases through a spokesperson is being taken over by 140 character — or fewer — statements via a celebrity’s Twitter feed. Celebrities can now talk to their fans without even getting out of bed. Regardless of where they are — the locker room, the VIP section, the private jet — Twitter has exposed the private lives of our favorite stars.
This unlimited access to a public forum has gotten countless celebrities into trouble. Through various off-color posts, we have found out many famous people have no place speaking to millions — regardless of the medium. But, aside from the trouble celebrities have gotten into as a result of social media, I believe social networks, particularly Twitter, have ruined the celebrity mystique.
We have gotten so used to seeing the day-to-day lives of our favorite celebs played out via social media that we are forgetting, up until just a few years ago, celebrities were about as reachable as the stars in the sky.
But thanks to social media, celebrities aren’t “stars” anymore; they’re more like birds. Sure, they can still soar to places out of our reach, but they can also crash into your just-Windexed kitchen window. The “stars” who previously resembled human versions of the celestial bodies they are named for are now throwing themselves at us whether we want them to or not — and personally I don’t want it.
Growing up, I was a huge Michael Jordan fan. I remember a poster I had hanging in my room that had Jordan soaring over the Earth for a slam dunk. That poster epitomized what I thought about Michael Jordan at that time — ‘out of this world.’ As far as I was concerned, he was more than human — just as many celebrities were seen prior to the age of social media. Jordan wasn’t posting Instagram pictures poppin’ bottles at the club after winning championships. He wasn’t tweeting about watching Shark Week on the Discovery Channel. No one really knew what Jordan did in his spare time. I personally like to think he slept in a hyperbaric chamber and watched nothing on TV but film of his opponents — and occasionally Space Jam. The private lives of superstars were for us to ponder about.
Today, the most accomplished and comparable NBA player to Michael Jordan is Kobe Bryant. Bryant was late to the party when he joined Twitter in January. Prior to posting his first tweet, he held relatively the same mystique Jordan held as an unattainable celestial body. Within 7 months of joining Twitter, Bryant has already lost that mystique. Former Los Angeles Lakers teammate of Bryant’s Dwight Howard chose to leave the Lakers and join the Houston Rockets on July 8. That very same day, Bryant unfollowed Howard on Twitter. The pettiness displayed by the 34-year-old Bryant makes him appear more like a high school student who just got dumped than an NBA superstar. This access to off-the-court behavior is the kind of thing that we were not privy to before Twitter.
Social media has humanized celebrities to the point that, for the most part, we now know that they are really just like us — only with more money and likely an inflated ego. They spell words incorrectly and get drunk. They watch Shark Week in their socks and sleep in beds, just like we do. I miss when the private lives of celebrities were private. Before the social media takeover, we were always left wanting more of our favorite celebrities. Now, I just want less.
Patrick Ryan is a UF English senior. His columns appear Thursdays.
