‘Instagram is the devil’- is it though Justin?
At one of his recent concerts in London Justin Bieber tantalised his (hopefully silent) crowd by asking ‘should I get my Instagram back?’. They replied *gasp* with excited screams only for him to retort ‘Instagram is the devil’.
Instagram is the devil.
Sorry? What?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or maybe your best friend isn’t Justin’s no1 fan so you don’t get daily updates like I do) then you’ll know Justin Bieber deleted his Instagram a few months ago after a bit of an argument with his ex-girlfriend, Selena Gomez.
Biebz is no stranger to controversy, in October I went to see him with my aforementioned best friend, one of Biebers no1 fans and it was the concert where he dropped his mic and stormed off stage in a strop. If I’m honest- I love his songs, from One time to Let me Love you he produces banger after banger and I’ve always sort of respected his strive to maintain a private life. I mean, he’s been in the limelight from when he was 12, when he was 15 he was bopping about on stages all over the world in white denim get ups while most of us were passed out in a park clutching a bottle of WKD. So for this reason I’ve always actually felt a little sorry for him- fair enough.
BUT, at his concert in October, he didn’t want to be there. 95% was mimed, he barely danced and despite telling everyone to stop screaming he had a ‘hype man’ telling the crowd to ‘scream if you want JB’ – talk about mixed signals. He repeatedly asked the crowd not to scream and eventually all the loving communication from his fans was all too much, in a VERY rude manner he demanded everyone to stop screaming and stormed off stage. Although his fan base has certainly grown and become more varied after his latest album it is still largely made up of girls. Girls who scream… I’ve never been at a concert where I’ve been asked to STOP making noise and STOP enjoying myself.
So after my experience of seeing Biebz live, my opinion changed. At the end of the day if you want to make music but hate interaction with fans- don’t book world tours? I honestly think he’s powerful enough to still sell records without concerts. However, I completely get he wants to move away from his image of being a ‘tween pop idol’ and maintain an edgier and cooler vibe, but to be honest if you’re going to act like a 12-year-old girl on stage then do you really think you’re going to demand the respect of older fans?
Anyway, back to Instagram. The fact that Justin wants to lead a private life is fair enough, but to be honest, it’s part and parcel of being a celebrity these days. The tension between public and private lives have been prominent in the media recently especially since Prince Harry’s statement about the harassment of his girlfriend- this I’m completely behind. There is no need for anyone to belittle, bully or generally make things up about people just to sell papers.
But with Instagram, you’re in control of what you post. So if it’s privacy Justin wants then don’t post anything on Instagram, is not the app’s fault.
Justin loves being controversial, he’s either really clever or a massive brat- I’m torn. And again, his statement he released months ago about feeling like a zoo animal has a point but at the same time it kind of comes with the job description. Like any celebrity or band, his fans are the reason for his success, so there’s no need to punch them like Justin also did recently in Barcelona. Now it’s easy for me to say because I don’t have hoards of fans following me around like Justin does (not yet anyway) but there’s no need to hit people. For Justin to come out and say Instagram is the devil, when nearly 100% of his fan base will use Instagram daily is another calculated move from Biebz. If you actually watch the video of him saying it, it is by no means a throw away comment. He knew exactly what he was saying. It was very well performed. Which makes me think he just loves press- no publicity is bad publicity. But then this completely contradicts his strive for privacy. It’s almost another move to distance himself from his fans, to prove how different he is from them.
Ironically, it wasn’t even his fans that caused him to delete his Instagram (or so he said at the time) but his ex-girlfriend Selena Gomez, that’s not Instagram’s fault Justin. I get that people become ‘keyboard warriors’ but if he’s not big enough to ignore that then maybe he shouldn’t even be allowed Instagram.
It’s the age old problem of the line between private and public in celebrities lives, but if Justin really does want a private life, deleting Instagram is not the way for him to do it. Maybe stop whacking fans out of the blue?