Instagram got a bit darker late in the evening on August 15 when Justin Bieber, Patron Saint of Moody Male Pop Stars, had deleted his account. All that was left was the shell of what once was — a celebrity page boasting more than 77 million followers.
Bieber's social media purge is not an isolated incident though. Yes, it was spurred by an ex-lover's quarrel, stupidly displayed for all the public to see, but it also fits into the growing trend of superstars using their social media to teach fans — and the media — a lesson.
Taylor Swift was in a similar predicament when she was forced to address the secret video Kim Kardashian West released on Snapchat regarding the lyrics of Kanye West's song, "Famous." Swift was deemed a liar, a snake, and some might argue, she even ruined her image for good. Though, despite all of this, she keep her social media accounts alive. Neglected, ignored, and stagnant, but still alive. (She did, however, have the help of the Instagram Gods in monitoring what was said on her photos.)
Arguably, both Swift and Bieber have built their careers, featuring numerous chart-topping albums, on the backs of their fandom. But the thing about fans is that they are not just consumers and ticket buyers — they are obsessive. They are crazed. They want it all. They want the behind-the-scenes videos on Snapchat, the curated Instagram feeds, the Twitter memes. If they don't get it, they will pester, stalk, and bombard their chosen superstar until they do get it. Is there even a right way to handle personal drama that gets the attention of millions of super fans?
So, who handled their drama better? Swift or Bieber?
Is it best to be like Swift — the girl who had an industry-related fiasco? She simply pulled the blankets over her head and hibernated while all the drama fizzled out on its own, as it always does.
Or is it better to be Bieber — the boy who has been through the ringer in the press a few more times than Swift, the girl-next-door of the music community, and likes to take a more extreme approach. He just nipped the whole conversation in the bud and, in the words of Swift, excluded himself from that narrative.
In the end though, the real losers in all of this are the fans. Neither Kim Kardashian West (who went right back to business as usual after rocking the boat) nor Selena Gomez (who now feels remorseful for the shit storm she kicked off) will truly be affected by this.
It's those tweens and teens that are currently turning Scooter Braun's Instagram into a memorial for Bieber. It's the millennials that don't understand the idea of privacy, and thrive in an oversharing world. Those are the people that are actually being punished by this pettiness.
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