I’m sure that by now most of us have heard about Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik’s breakup. The two took to Twitter to confirm reports of their split early this month.
Predictably, many of their fans were shocked and disappointed to hear the news.
To me, there is a noticeable difference in the two sets of reactions (i.e. that of Zayn & Gigi, and that of their fans). While the former appear to be calm and composed, the latter appear to have, for the lack of a better phrase, lost ‘all meaning’ to their lives. A similar response was seen when news of Brangelina’s split hit social media.
A tweet said: “idk why im posting so many photos of #zigi i guess Im shocked for their decision
We have somehow become so highly invested in the lives and relationships of celebrities that it now seems as if each and every one of their decisions (particularly those they make in their personal life) will directly affect us. A single celebrity break-up can seemingly make us lose faith in love and bring our world ‘to an end’ (figuratively, I hope).
Another tweet said: “Gigi and Zayne broke up and now I no longer believe in love”
I, for one, am really interested in finding out the cause behind these emotionally-burdened reactions. Is it purely for the sake of being dramatic on social media? Or is there a kind of distorted sense of reality hiding behind the reactions?
The emotional investment seems to extend to pop culture figures only, though; let’s not forget that March 14th, the day ZiGi’s split was confirmed, was also the day that modern science lost one of its treasures, Stephen Hawking. Social media’s reaction?
A user tweeted: “RIP #ZIGI. Yeah and also RIP #stephenhawkins”
I wouldn’t go so far to say that this represents everyone online, but it definitely accounts for a large chunk of social media users. Aditi Mishra, from the class of 2020, recounts what she noticed that day: “People posted stories on Instagram and Whatsapp, first displaying their sorrow for Stephen Hawking’s death. and then the fact that their world had come crashing down because Zayn and Gigi broke up… I think implicitly comparing the gravity of the two situations this way is very disrespectful.”
This isn’t an argument to propagate the idea that there are more important things in this world than a celebrity breakup, but one that is trying to question why we are so invested in something that happens to be so removed from our day-to-day lives.
It’s not our life, it’s not our relationship, so why should we be so torn apart?
Edited by Gauri Jhangiani
Images curated by Viraj Malani and Prakriti Sharma