Social media's reaction to Justin Bieber 'breakdown' proves we still have a lot to learn

Justin Bieber is just the latest victim

We scorn past media when looking back on their treatment of struggling celebrities, yet loudly follow and theorise while watching stars go through it in real time.

We like to think we’re past the days of celebrities’ ‘meltdowns’ being splashed on the front page of tabloid magazines, but if the coverage of Justin Bieber’s last few months is anything to go off, not much has changed.

Despite being far more informed on mental health and trauma, understanding the struggles of child stardom and fame in general, we’re still coming for celebrities when we’re beyond aware that they’re going through it. 

Bieber has lived in the spotlight, had his life managed, moulded and scrutinised since he was 15, and yet it seems like whether you’re a fan or not, everyone is obsessed with following and hypothesising about his current state. 

What’s happening with Justin Bieber?

After Bieber joined SZA on stage at Coachella last month, two types of reaction videos emerged on social media. 

Half were talking about the performance, and the rest were suggesting the 31-year-old was battling addiction, expressing concern, pointing out the ‘signs’ and asking what his wife Hailey was doing to help him.

The singer has since been filmed pleading with paparazzi to leave him alone, as he has done throughout his career. 

He was recorded telling a photographer, “it’s not clocking to you that I’m standing on business, is it?” Image: Getty

He was recorded telling a photographer, “it’s not clocking to you that I’m standing on business, is it?”

“You’re provoking me — you’re going to take this video out of context like you always do”.

“I’m a real dad, a real husband, a real man”.

The star shared screenshots of a text exchange resulting in a friendship breakup on Instagram, writing, “my anger is a response to pain I have been thru”. 

“Asking a traumatized person not to be traumatized is simply mean”.

Hours later, he posted a paragraph of text, opening with “People keep telling me to heal. Don’t you think if I could have fixed myself I would have already?”

He then explained, “I know I’m broken. I know I have anger issues.”

Despite spending the last few years criticising public response to celebrities’ hardships, people are still memeifying his pleas, comparing him to other celebrities who faced intense public pressure, and expecting him to have the perfect, tasteful crisis. Image: Getty

Even though we can see that the star’s going through something, and despite spending the last few years criticising public response to celebrities’ hardships, people are still memeifying his pleas, comparing him to other celebrities who faced intense public pressure, and expecting him to have the perfect, tasteful crisis. 

We know we’ve seen this before, yet our reaction hasn’t changed

We look back on the early 00s and 90s, sympathising with Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and Amanda Bynes.

We’ve watched stars battle depression and addiction, change their personalities, behaviours and end relationships after struggling with fame, yet our reaction to their real-time struggles is vastly different from our reaction when the severity of their struggles is publicised after their lowest points. 

The realities of child stardom are understood perhaps more than ever before, as more stars open up about their experiences entering the industry as children. We talk about the lack of protections for young people working in Hollywood and the prevalence of abuse, manipulation and burnout. Image: Getty

The last two years have been spent learning about Matthew Perry and Liam Payne’s unhealthy coping mechanisms after being thrust into the spotlight, discussing how sad it is that stars feel isolated, unprotected and forced to perform, yet comments like “what in the Britney Spears is going on here” and “damn you are a loser” still pop up in Bieber’s comment section. 

The realities of child stardom are understood perhaps more than ever before, as more stars open up about their experiences entering the industry as children. We talk about the lack of protections for young people working in Hollywood and the prevalence of abuse, manipulation and burnout.

We have a deeper understanding of how fame affects people’s mental health in general, and Bieber’s ex-manager Scooter Braun has even recently admitted on a podcast that there are things he would change about the way he managed his teen clients in the 2010s, saying “we were all kids, and we were all moving so fast, and we all wanted to succeed so bad”.

Parasocial relationships leave many fans (and trolls) feeling a strong attachment to stars, yet not strong enough to elicit the same level of care and consideration we show anyone else during mental health struggles.

Yet, despite a new revelation every few months reminding us that child stars weren’t really allowed to grow up and develop in a way they would have wanted to, we still expect these celebrities to have the perfect hardships and deal with their issues in the ‘right’ way, maintaining the performative composure of many struggling stars. . 

And when we’re witness to their confronting troubles in real-time, we feverishly refresh our feeds for the latest update on their behaviour, theorise what drug may be behind it, what singular event triggered the breakdown, whether their partner is supportive enough, or wanting to leave.

Parasocial relationships leave many fans (and trolls) feeling a strong attachment to stars, yet not strong enough to elicit the same level of care and consideration we show anyone else during mental health struggles.

It’s proof that no matter the star, we don’t know how to stop expecting them to deal with their struggles quietly, perfectly and behind closed doors, while still giving us unfiltered access to their lives. Image: Getty

So why are we still reacting like this to celebrities' troubles?

No one can look away or stop talking about stars’ darkest times as though their situation is a juicy piece of gossip overheard in the office.

We can’t stop ourselves from sharing our hypotheses because we like to think we figured out what was going on in stars’ lives before the potential tell-all, as if we knew about the one concealed aspect of a very public life.

We like to let people know how bad we feel for Bieber, at the same time as throwing out theories of relationship breakdowns, abuse, substance issues, or worse. We fall into a habit of drawing comparisons between the current events and other known names’ public breakdowns, which we reference as the worst Hollywood has seen.

Regardless of whether the judgment of the singers’ latest posts and videos comes from a place of concern or care, it’s proof that no matter the star, we don’t know how to stop expecting them to deal with their struggles quietly, perfectly and behind closed doors, while still giving us unfiltered access to their lives.

Originally published as Social media's reaction to Justin Bieber 'breakdown' proves we still have a lot to learn