The rumors of their deaths have been greatly exaggerated. Why is it that social media wants celebrities dead so badly?
This past Friday, a very shady domain called msnbc.webiste reported that former child actor Macaulay Culkin had passed away at the age of 34 in his “exceptionally clean” apartment in Manhattan.
In the article, they use a few vague terms like “un-confirmed”, and that the story was still “developing”.
Despite, the questionable delivery of information, I was stricken, while my sister suggested that we marathon a bunch of Home Alone movies in memoriam.
There is a very specific ritual that one would perform following a death of a celebrity, mostly in which fans send out many condolences over social media, but could we really call ourselves true Culkin fans when we did not even support his cover band, Pizza Underground?
Apparently, Culkin has some supernatural powers, because this is not the first time that he has kicked the mortal bucket. Back in April, another callous rumor of his passing circulated around Facebook.
However, it appears that a miracle had occurred, and Culkin is alive and well. He tweeted out a picture, parodying the movie Weekend at Bernies, to prove that he was not, in fact, pushing up daisies.
Many stars have fallen victim into the yawning pit that is the Internet death hoax, including popstar Miley Cyrus, who recently suffered from a drug overdose, and in the past, actor Russell Crowe (Gladiator) fell off a mountain. Among them, too, are Jackie Chan, Dwanye “The Rock” Johnson, Usher, Bon Jovi, Bill Nye and Chris Brown.
It is sad to think that sites are using celebrity deaths for click-bait, or that people on social media are so ‘like’ happy to post “R.I.P” before they check to see if the information has been fabricated.
These are people with lives and families. How would you feel if you were on Twitter and you happened to stumble upon a link that claimed your loved one committed suicide, dozens of other well-wishing tweets that said “R.I.P”. And, believe it or not people can be particularly cruel when expressing their relief over the death of a celebrity they have an ill-will towards.
There was no shortage of “thank Gods” and collective sighs when it was believed that teenage idol Justin Bieber had died back in early January in a ferrari crash. The hoax was mainly propagated to scare his often overzealous fan girls. While it was malicious, no one is faulting the people who started the rumor.
This type of thing has become so commonplace that when a celebrity actually does pass away, you feel forced to question it. However, we all know Michael Jackson and Tupac are not dead; We are all just waiting for the second coming.
Zhana Johnson
Senior Features Editor
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