Tweeting for attention

This is an issue I’ve been thinking about a lot recently, responsible tweeting. In this program we have spent some time discussing image, and how our conduct and what we post online could potentially haunt us in the future. But does this apply to celebrities? I know that many celebrities seek attention, sometimes through negative behaviour. One example of this would be Whitney Cummings (most recently in TV series Whitney) who tweeted during the Oscars, “If Christian Bale murdered me I would have an orgasm right before I died.”  I know there is a high chance she is referring to his role in American Psycho and his reputation for having anger management issues. Is this okay to be tweeting though?

I have two issues with this. The first is that Cummings is supposed to be a role model for other people. I know that celebrities don’t always choose to be role models, but it goes with the territory. If you don’t want people to look up to you, or at least judge you based on your tweets, don’t tweet things for attention. Many celebrities don’t have official twitter accounts and manage to maintain a low profile. The bigger issue I have with this is that it makes a joke about violence against women. Is that really funny? I don’t know how responsible it is for anyone, famous or not, to be tweeting about that. This is an issue that still affects far too many women. Some of these women are celebrities like Cummings. One of the most infamous and recent examples is the relationship between Rihanna and Chris Brown.  

As we all know, Chris Brown beat Rihanna up a few years ago. Badly. It was during the Grammy weekend and he was banned from attending the Grammys. Well this year he was allowed to not only attend, but perform. Then Brown won a Grammy and tweeted, “HATE ALL U WANT BECUZ I GOT A GRAMMY Now! That’s the ultimate F***** OFF!” He deleted that tweet shortly afterwards possibly because of all the spelling and grammatical errors? A little while later he tweeted, “IM BACK SO WATCH MY BaCK as I walk away from all this negativity #teambreezygrammy.” Not only did this prove he can’t spell but it also spoke to his character in ways he probably didn’t imagine.

I’m sure on some level both Cummings and Brown knew their tweets would get attention, but does that make it okay? While I believe Cummings tweet was a joke, is it a responsible thing to tweet from your official Twitter account? Obviously what Brown tweeted was not responsible, but does anyone expect him to be? At this point he is a lost cause, wasting of a perfectly good opportunity to rebuild his image by tweeting something appropriate.

While I know the importance of responsible tweeting, and do my best to not tweet things I will be embarrassed by in the future, I think celebrities should be aware of the effect their tweets have on their fan, followers and the people who look up to them. Making jokes about domestic violence, or acting like your abusive actions don’t matter anymore, isn’t good for anyone.