The Daily OrangeTwittering celebrity feuds: New Web site provides a new forum for beef
By Stacie Foster
Posted: 2/16/09, 3:33 AM EST Section: Feature
If I was born to do anything in this lifetime, it was to procrastinate. That's my talent, my skill, it's what I'm good at. So naturally, I've spent many sleepless nights Facebook stalking, MySpace hunting and iChatting when I should have been reading or studying. Recently, I discovered a new way to waste my time: Twitter.
Twitter is an online site where users are free to share links, videos and status updates with their friends. People can subscribe to their friends' accounts and instantly see what their friends are writing.
Originally, I didn't think much of Twitter. But when Ashton Kutcher and Perez Hilton, a gossip guru, started Twitter-fighting, I was hooked. You know me: I can't pass up a good catfight to save my life!
The whole ordeal started when Ashton's stepdaughter, Rumer Willis, joined the Twitter community. Perez directed an update to Rumer's account that read, "Welcome to Twitter, Potato-head." Well naturally, Ashton wasn't too happy and directed a message of his own to Perez: "Just leave my kids alone." Perez responded that Rumer loved the attention, and things escalated from there.
Ashton and Perez aren't the only celebrities that have caught the Twitter bug. Celebrities like Kanye West and Britney Spears also have accounts. West uses his account to remind his fans of his musical accolades and No. 1 hits. On the other hand, fans of Spears have questioned whether she actually updates the account herself.
Spears has around 125,000 followers, and West has almost 12,000. With numbers like these, Twitter has morphed into another food that feeds our celebrity-obsessed culture. I'm not complaining, of course, I'm more intrigued.
Why do we, myself included, care so much about the lives of celebrities? On top of that, why do celebrities on Twitter want to share with the world what they think and do?
It's almost like a double standard. Celebrities protest attention from paparazzi and tabloids. However, they create attention for themselves by using sites like Twitter. That doesn't sound fair to me.
Twitter is an online site where users are free to share links, videos and status updates with their friends. People can subscribe to their friends' accounts and instantly see what their friends are writing.
Originally, I didn't think much of Twitter. But when Ashton Kutcher and Perez Hilton, a gossip guru, started Twitter-fighting, I was hooked. You know me: I can't pass up a good catfight to save my life!
The whole ordeal started when Ashton's stepdaughter, Rumer Willis, joined the Twitter community. Perez directed an update to Rumer's account that read, "Welcome to Twitter, Potato-head." Well naturally, Ashton wasn't too happy and directed a message of his own to Perez: "Just leave my kids alone." Perez responded that Rumer loved the attention, and things escalated from there.
Ashton and Perez aren't the only celebrities that have caught the Twitter bug. Celebrities like Kanye West and Britney Spears also have accounts. West uses his account to remind his fans of his musical accolades and No. 1 hits. On the other hand, fans of Spears have questioned whether she actually updates the account herself.
Spears has around 125,000 followers, and West has almost 12,000. With numbers like these, Twitter has morphed into another food that feeds our celebrity-obsessed culture. I'm not complaining, of course, I'm more intrigued.
Why do we, myself included, care so much about the lives of celebrities? On top of that, why do celebrities on Twitter want to share with the world what they think and do?
It's almost like a double standard. Celebrities protest attention from paparazzi and tabloids. However, they create attention for themselves by using sites like Twitter. That doesn't sound fair to me.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
¿?
posted 2/16/09 @ 11:17 AM EST
Twitter was founded in 2006. There is nothing "new" about it.
puhlease
posted 2/16/09 @ 11:58 PM EST
sigh.
i wish the daily orange had copy editors.
or fact checkers.
or both?
twitter was founded in 2006.
sigh.
i'm losing faith in you guys.
Savvy Sorostitute
posted 2/17/09 @ 12:34 AM EST
As Malcolm Gladwell would put it, Twitter didn't tip until Obama's presidential campaign. It has been multiplying in popularity ever since.
Signed,
Savvy Sorostitute
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