Welcome to Social Media Drama. In this series, Lasso social media editor, Nhari Djan, will recap and reflect on the biggest trending topics in the online world. Expect coverage of all things from Twitter beef to Facebook fights to Snapchat updates. Like it or not, this is our world now. #KeepUp.
There have been many cases where we’ve seen someone fall victim to the Internet’s ugliness. For celebrities, constant scrutiny and harsh comments are expected, and sometimes even welcomed by those who claim that #HatersAreMyMotivators. What we don’t often see, however is how deeply some of our favorite musicians, athletes, or our Twitter-Instagram-Youtube famous people are affected by their mass exposure.
On March 28, around noon, we received a healthy dose of Twitter drama involving musicians PartyNextDoor and Kehlani, and Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving. At first, this seemed to be a juicy cheating scandal, beginning with a photo PartyNextDoor shared of him and Kehlani together, despite her being in a confirmed relationship with Irving.
Social media quickly caught on to this, immediately sparking jokes, memes and the continuous discussion of who “took the W” and who “took the L.”
The fun came to an end, however, when after already deleting her social media accounts, R&B artist Kehlani had a reported suicide attempt later that evening and had been hospitalized. The singer posted on Instagram in the hospital with two lengthy messages addressing the rumors from earlier that day, which she later deleted.
Following the news, the internet broke into strong waves of support for Kehlani from fans and other celebrities. There were, however, many who viewed the situation as attention-seeking or dramatic, despite the singer’s openness about her battle with depression.
One of the loudest voices in contradiction came from R&B and Pop megastar, Chris Brown, on Tuesday. Brown insisted that Kehlani faked the suicide attempt, and was simply trying to gather sympathy from people. His comments on the issue gained a lot of negative responses, but it represented the view of a lot people who doubt Kehlani’s motives. Brown’s hashtag #KyrieMVP, in support of Irving, was used by many to condemn Kehlani’s actions, from the alleged cheating to the alleged suicide attempt.
The saga finally reached its conclusion on Wednesday, when Irving made his own statement, actually confirming Kehlani’s story, much to Chris Brown’s surprise. At this point, whether you believed or not, the underlying message in Irving’s tweets was simple: Drop it. It’s over.
What we saw in this social media mess was not only drama, but huge a lack of compassion regarding Kehlani’s mental illness. I was especially disappointed (but not surprised) by Brown’s response, which revealed his attitude towards not only Kehlani, but towards women in general. But then again, this is the same man who wrote a song saying, “These h*s aint loyal,” and proceeded to cheat on his own girlfriend, which resulted in the birth of his daughter, Royalty. Not to mention the guy is infamous for physically abusing his ex girlfriend, Rihanna. Perhaps, his perspective is a bit skewed.
The story surrounding #Kehlani stayed trending for a whopping three days (which is saying a lot for Twitter). It wasn’t the first scandal to captivate and polarize social media and it certainly won’t be the last. But once again, we saw a representation of the struggle to level with people online and treat them like human beings, even if they are celebrities.
