MUMBAI: Looks like rivals Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan have something in common after all… We are talking about their ‘Twitter Terror’.
Before the ‘Internet Age’, the only way to connect to your favourite personalities was through the newspaper and television, where you could read and watch pre-conducted interviews and news. Now, with twitter in the picture, fans not only get to listen to their favourite stars directly but are also empowered to communicate with them. But, to follow a star does not necessarily mean exchanging terms of endearment. Now days apparently people use twitter to insult, bully, berate and abuse stars. We see a lot of people following these celebrities and talking about how they think that he/she is no good, has no talent, and so on!
So, it doesn’t really come across as a surprise that Shah Rukh or Aamir then decide to boycott Twitter. As Deepa Mehta said in an interview: “It gives the anonymous, armchair critic a sense of empowerment; and no one knows this better than Shah Rukh Khan, who has quit Twitter again, after a fresh surge of attacks brought on by his views on being a Muslim superstar in India.”
This is the second time Shah Rukh Khan has boycotted Twitter after having been chased out by similar circumstances last year. The star is troubled with the negative energy on Twitter.
SRK tweeted on 9 January 2013 (His last tweet so far) : “Sad, I read so much judgements, jingoism, religious intolerance on the net & I used to think, this platform will change narrow-mindedness, but no!”
Sources reveal that Shah Rukh has now decided that he doesn’t want to deal with such negativity on the internet and is planning on developing a strategy to maintain his online presence and from now on his media team will handle all online interactions.
He is not the only star to abandon twitter. Even Aamir Khan is online very rarely. After November 2012, he went off twitter for a good 3 months before posting again in February this year. Actor Imran Khan was also subjected to snide and unaspiring comments and he not only stopped tweeting but also deleted his twitter handle.
Looks like ‘twitter phobia’ is spreading further to Hollywood as well!
After a string of gossip-magazine headlines announced that the Miley Cyrus’ engagement to Liam Hemsworth had been called off. The star of the famous ‘Hanna Montana’ fame was forced to speak up on Twitter. Miley Cyrus tweeted late yesterday: “I am so sick of LA. And sick of the lies that come with it. I didn’t call off my wedding. Taking a break from social media. #draining”
It is safe to say that the internet has given rise to a lot of cynical commentaries especially because one can hide behind the mask of anonymity, not to mention the constant intrusion of privacy of people’s lives. But, how one manages to survive in the web world depends on how one manages to handle such intense scrutiny and intrusion.
This is what some of the stars had to say:
Ranvir Shorey: “Stars live in a bubble. The medium grounds them.” There are some who use the medium to ‘deny’ unflattering stories that appear in the media or even settle scores with those with a so-called agenda. There are also others, who are yet to figure out how to deal with the self-styled virtual vigilantes – masked, anonymous and very, very powerful.”
Vir Das: “Some people just like to abuse famous people on Twitter. You either get used to it or choose to ignore it. When I get such negative tweets, I know only a handful of them are being nasty.”
Arjun Rampal: “People who send negative energy should know that it doesn’t affect anyone but them. So, no it doesn’t affect me. A few negative people are easily ignored.”
Zoya Akhtar: “I am not on Twitter for a reason. I don’t need to know so much about others, neither do I want to talk about myself there.”
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