We’ve all seen our fair share of celebrity melt downs growing up. With every refresh of our twitter feed we learn a new celebrity has done something else unacceptable for our society (beginning with Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears and wrapping it up with Amanda Bynes and Miley Cyrus). While we were all getting over Miley Cyrus’ identity crisis of 2013, Justin Bieber rang in the new year with his own personal form of rebellion.
If I’m being honest, I was definitely a “Belieber” these past few years. My Christmas present for 2011 was a ticket to the his concert in Atlanta.. and yes I was a junior in high school. I was even one of those annoying fans that tweeted him everyday in hopes he’d notice me, but obviously he never did. As my own personal Bieber Fever cooled down, he began to go a little bonkers.
It all began with getting in fights with the paparazzi and escalated into him being arrested for driving under the influence. For the past few weeks, every time we turn on the TV we’ve heard a new shocking story about the Biebs. It was so bad that in two of my classes, my professors began lecture with, “So, did you hear what Justin Bieber did?” If it weren’t for those teachers I would have been completely uninformed on that day’s “breaking news.”
While I know we are all sitting back anxiously waiting for what Justin Bieber or Miley Cyrus might do next, I can’t help but feel bad for these kids. Because I am a kid, about their same age, and am making mistakes just as some might say they are. The only difference between them and me, other than our bank accounts, is that my life is not broadcasted to the world. Now I’ve never gone as far as shaving my head like Britney Spears, but so what if that’s what she wanted to do? Sometimes I get bad haircuts but they aren’t the top news story in the evening.
It’s entertaining to watch each of these celebrities have a melt down. And, I admit, that probably says more about our society than I could sum up. But I think watching them make mistakes, just as we do, gives us the comfort of knowing we aren’t the only crazy people in this world. Maybe even some of our thoughts are a little selfish. Something along the lines of, “Well at least my life isn’t that bad.” If our lives were included in the news every night, who knows, maybe we would shave our heads, too. While their lives are our entertainment every night let’s be real… does it really matter?