YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN

Triangle columnist Izzy Munn breaks down the celebrity obsession

Never will I ever forget where I was the night of April 6. Two friends and I were driving home from a baseball game and had just picked up dinner from Jaggers. As I was driving across the overpass, I heard the words that will “Long Live” in my head. “TAYLOR SWIFT AND JOE ALWYN BROKE UP!” My mind was a “Blank Space.” Never in my “Wildest Dreams” did I ever think that Taylor and Joe would break up. They were meant to be together, “Forever and Always.” He was supposed to be her “London Boy.” I sped home as quickly as I could so I could read the article myself. I put the car in park and immediately pulled out my phone to see I had at least 30 text messages asking me if I had seen the news. My face turned “Red.” I couldn’t believe that in the palm of my hand I was reading the downfall of a relationship I thought I knew “All Too Well” for the past six years, as I kept track of my favorite singer and her “Lover.”

As I scrolled through each article, and read every reassuring tweet saying it was fake, something felt wrong. I was reading the very public breakup of two prominent celebrities and every “Treacherous” detail of their entire relationship. Despite trying to keep the relationship as private as they could, it was now plastered on every news channel in the country. I couldn’t help but think about how I would feel if this was “ME!”

A lot of times we forget that, despite what we may think, celebrities are humans too. Their relationships and lives are just as sensitive as our own. Public figures, while knowingly being in the spotlight, still deserve privacy and respect like we do.

Recently, singer Ariana

Grande came out talking about how people had been commenting on hers, as well as other celebrities' body image and weight. She pointed out how fans shouldn’t be this comfortable speaking about the health and bodies of famous people, or anyone for that fact.

Celebrity gossip is “Nothing New.” Respecting the lives of celebrities isn’t really something that we do in society, but maybe it's something that we should work on. Imagine if people were talking about your relationship, or your health, on every social media platform available. The mental toll events like that could have on any person is unimaginable, so we shouldn’t let the famous be where the standard stops. By reading celebrity gossip, none of us are “Innocent” in the matter.

“If This Was A Movie,” Taylor and Joe would still be living their “Love Story” and all would be well in the world. Alas, I am still trying to mentally process their breakup and how they may “Never Ever Get Back Together.” But now, I can at least gain some “Closure” and “Shake It Off” knowing that I am no longer feeding into the media frenzy that caused problems in their relationship to begin with. In the future, we need to continue to recognize the problem with celebrity media and the damage it can cause to so many people. “Long Story Short,” it’s time to make a “Change.”