Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
The Eastern Echo Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024 | Print Archive
The Eastern Echo

Shia LaBeouf wears paper bag head

Opinion: Celebrities deserve more privacy, especially in times of crisis

Stop judging and tearing people down, especially those you don't know personally.

From breakups to new relationships to addiction to deaths, life and its ever changing course can be extremely difficult. Now stop and imagine having to go through all of these things in front of billions of people, having no way to stop their judgements on your personal life and decisions.

This is what celebrities are forced to go through on a daily basis; and while you may believe that this is the life they chose, it nonetheless seems incredibly unfair. Many people dream of being famous without thinking of the inevitable consequences.

While I feel like I’m kind of contradicting myself by talking about some of these instances, I need to give examples to fully explain what I mean.

One instance of this is breakups such as that of Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth. A few months ago when they first separated, there were allegations of infidelity and tons of theories as to why the relationship ended - which can, and in this case, did, lead to even more drama between those who were actually involved. 

Whenever I see things like this trending for a long period of time, I always feel so bad that these hardships faced by famous people are made even harder because of rumors and the press. Once their business is out in the open, they feel obligated to address the situation, while they may have wanted to keep it a secret. 

Although the press can often be a good thing that helps entertain and inform the public, it can also be negative in cases like these.

The celebrity stories that get to me the most are the ones revolving around alcohol and drug addiction. Whether you read it on the internet or saw a headline about it on the cover of a magazine, most people are probably aware that many superstars have struggled with substance abuse, one being Demi Lovato. 

When Lovato relapsed in 2018 after 6 years of sobriety and ended up in the hospital because of an overdose, most of the posts I read about it were harmful rather than helpful. People made memes and acted as if addiction were some sort of joke or that the overdose was 100% Lovato’s fault and made her an awful person.

If you have had any personal experience with this disease, you would know that is not the case; and even if it was, no one should be using their platform to tear other people down, especially when they’re already in such a low place. It’s already hard enough being judged by the people closest to you, let alone the entire world. 

Almost the same thing happened when Mac Miller passed away and thousands of people were blaming the accidental overdose on Ariana Grande. Instead of blaming the addict like they did with Lovato, they blamed a woman from his life. Double standard, huh? The comments I read under Grande’s Instagram photos literally made me sick to my stomach. Even people I knew personally were saying she was the reason he died. She was going through such a huge loss, which was no one’s fault, and it was crazy to me that anyone could say such hurtful things and be fine with it.

Most recently, the rapper Juice WRLD died after having a seizure at an airport, rumored to be due to his addiction to pills. You probably know about this incident because tons of people were posting jokes and memes about the star. I am positive that the people closest to him were hurting and the excessive commentary undoubtedly did not help the cause.

Besides the fact that people are just cruel and mean online, I also just don’t understand why the lives of these celebrities should concern literally everyone and why so many people care so much and have so many opinions on the lives of people they don’t even know.

When someone chooses to post or release something about a specific event they are currently going through, that is their choice and should only be theirs to share.