How the News Reacts When a Celeb Deletes Their Twitter Account

The Opinion of a Millennial on Twitter about Social Media’s Popularity in the News

Recently, I wrote an article about the increasingly important roles of social media in news and how social media is a unique form of presenting media. Now I want to inform you of a sad condition of the current relationship held between social media and the news media. It has to do with the social networks’ prominent appearance in today’s news stories.

Trump tweets. We tweet. And, apparently, everybody finds it a necessary tool for communication. Especially early in his term, President Trump’s tweets got some handsome attention, extreme backlash, and puzzled readers. When the President of the United States comes forward with a statement on social media regarding government, politics, or moral values, then it can be considered news (though perhaps not delivered in the best medium).

Now, however, it seems whenever a celebrity tweets or shares a Facebook post or contributes to whatever their favorite social media platform is, it makes digital headlines. In May of this year, Pulse Nigeria published an article with the header, “Big Sean, Jhene Aiko unfollow each other on Instagram.”

ELLE published a piece in late 2017 with the headline “Selena Gomez and Her Mom Maybe Just Unfollowed Each Other on Instagram Over a Boy,” a gossip piece, and a stupid one at that. Much more recently, actors Chris Hemsworth (Thor in the MCU) and Chris Evans (Captain America) unfollowed James Gunn on Twitter.

Interestingly, Disney’s firing Gunn was due to remarks that he had made on social media. Then Star Trek: The Next Generation actor Wil Wheaton (who’s also a blogger on Medium) deleted his Twitter account a few days ago.

I guess tweeting and unfollowing and deleting accounts (when you’re important enough) makes headlines. It looks like Tweeting and Instagram-ing are just as significant as the minuscule yet costly ups and downs of the stock market. Social media posting is probably even more important than the children dying of starvation, the youths kidnapped and used in human trafficking, or the people being ruthlessly murdered by terrorists.

I know my grave sense of sarcasm is not for all. I don’t mean to be offensive by it. I merely wish to show you what I’m seeing in the media right now. I am blown away that actions like “unfollowing” and “sharing,” which take but a tap of the screen, make the news. Aren’t there more newsworthy topics to make the public aware of? Or are the news media trying to subtly divert our attention from what’s really going on in this country and in the world?