I feel like by writing this Iām gearing toward the infamous twitlonger That Guy From The Janoskianskfld made about Ariana Grande.
Making my short return to this blog, I feel that this situation perfectly ignites the spark I need to voice my opinions on some things. Now, before this, I would constantly try and voice my opinion when things would happen, but I would always shut myself out because I feel that in this day and age, ANYTHING you say on the internet can be picked up by some random person, taken out of context, and next thing you know youāre the next damn meme. Iām not saying Iām popular enough to have this happen to me, no by any means!
Tumblr, like all social media sites, have become a weird place for me. Iāll tell you how by naming each of them, and telling you to the best of my ability how theyāre weird to me. I know, I know, eventually Iāll connect this to Zayn Malik just you wait.
Facebook: itās become a place where you talk to your grandma after you post a status about some motivational/emotional thing that your friends know youāre trying to come off as that good, calm person you want all these people to think. The place where God apparently is always on and is very insulted if you didnāt like that picture of the kid who is giving chalk to the girl across the street.
Twitter: oh GOD Twitter. 140 (?) characters that can be annoying as fuck or true as fuck. In less than 140 characters times about 100, called your timeline, people can collectively manage to annoy the shit out of you with their repetitive āNetflix & pizzaā ācan u notā āI canāt evenā āmisogynyā āfeminismā ā[big ass word] perpetuationā Letās not forget the amount of repetitive/stolen tweets.
Tumblr: Same as above, just without the 140 characters.
Instagram: birdās eye view picture of a fork.
YouTube: āIām writing a bookā āIām going to be in a movieā āIām going to be on TV!ā
I know what youāre thinking, I KNOW NUMBER TWO makes you want to throw number twos at me, BUT. [Pause: For the record and in my defense, Iām not saying Iām pro misogyny or against feminism, just noting how crazy and highly sensitive, dare I say, itās all gotten.] Notice the overall theme of these social media sites. We use social media to share, socially, whatās going on with us, our lives, things that matter to us, all in the goal to connect with each other. In historical context, itās incredible. For short term conditions, however, and I highly emphasize short term, it can get dangerous. You see, Iāve learned that itās not really the huge events that put a strain on us, but rather the hassles, those little nit picky things that annoys you really affect our physical health in the long run. Of course, one could argue that in a way, these two things eventually meet and overlap. Why do we allow it to overlap, though?
Is it really human nature to be so envious, so power hungry? Am I about to go on rants about capitalism and how itās responsible for Zayn leaving One Direction? Probably not, as I am totally not an expert on any of these things. I will, nevertheless, talk about how I personally would feel if I were in his shoes. Iām not going to speculate anymore, because at the end of the day I can preoccupy myself with these scenarios and delusions that are wrong. Iāll just take the situation as I hear it and try to understand where heās coming from. A coping mechanism, I guess you could say.
Going from a person only a handful of people knew of to becoming someone half the world knows about is a pretty daunting process for me. Social media today makes this ten times worse. People more than ever have the chance to voice their (albeit most of the time shitty, for lack of a better word) opinions. Iām sure back when Charlemagne had decided to convert to Christianity people were voicing their opinions, or back before The French Revolution they were probably saying: āMon Dieu! Marie Antoinette just threw some sick ass tea party with cakes, gallettes, and breads galore while half of France is starving to death and that chicken over there is totally surprised no oneās roasted her yet!!!!ā
Based on his interviews and what the other boys had to say about him, I can be 75% sure that Zaynās a guy that conducts himself publicly in a very reserved way but when it comes to a small amount of people, he lets loose. Now, that might be my biased opinion, in the way that I am actually very much in the form Iāve just described and it wouldnāt surprise me if Zayn were that way too, but in the goal that Iām trying to see where heās coming from, Iāll base my thoughts there.
For someone who might be very careful of trying to let their true-self shine through despite being put a world where pop culture is the Thing That Matters, and people in this culture are being put on a pedestal, itās probably stressful. āBut he should know what heās getting himself into!ā YouĀ might say. Iāll give you that one, but thereās some things I should bring up to you first. For someone who, as weāve seen through movies/documentaries, has to perform live in front of thousands of people, take a nap, then get up and record an album, in mostly unstable conditions may seem like fun but it can get stressing, and the way I could probably closely relate to it is if I were trying to write an essay last minute in the back of the car on my way to Mexico. Yeah, weak correlation but hey, Iām trying. Letās not forget that after recording that album, you essentially take another nap, and then get ready to perform again the next morning. Itās pretty crazy that when you finally get a chance to sit down with a bowl of cereal, scroll down through this website to see how everyone else is doing to see people talking about how you spent all night fooling around with some girl on the back of your tour bus when you clearly know that the last thing you want to do is getting hormonal with someone, and youāre probably about to lie on (or in, in Niallās case) the suitcase for a nap.Ā
As Tyler the Creator probably might say, ājust turn your fucking computer off hahahaā (total paraphrase there, but if you know, you know). But for someone as famous as them, itās not just a matter of turning off the computer. Remember that routine I described earlier? Remember how we always can see random articles from some random ass gossip website filled with paparazzi photos? Doesnāt it make you mad? To have someone come up to you and take pictures of you as youāre, I donāt know, getting some groceries or eating inside a restaurant without the slightest intention of wanting to meet you, just for the sake of saying āHoly shit look who I found!!!!!ā Doesnāt that make you feel, gross? Harassed, even?
As a pop culture obsessedā¦culture? Itās weird. I mean, we all have our obsessions, donāt get me wrong, and if people make fun of you for obsessing over One Direction, tell them to fuck right off. Wait. Let me back track there. Letās assume that youāre being a sane (I had to refrain from typing Zayn) fan right now. We all have our things that we like, and as Daniel Radcliffe mightāve said, some of those things might be really bad, and in that case, really try to get help or something. But like everything, and including social media, thereās a limit. Thereās a limit to what you should and shouldnāt say. āDefine limit!ā You might ask. Well a relative limit. We cross the line when we speculate and make up random shit that we know for sure isnāt real. We cross the limit when we say really hurtful things about someone else without thinking about it first. We cross the limit when we think that āācelebritiesāā are not human and they shouldnāt deserve a break. Thereās other things we definitely cross limits, such as that whole cutting/nude picture/what have you trend here, and as you should be aware, you should ignore it. Refer back to that Tyler the Creator situation. Remember that weāre all human. Weāre not businesses, weāre not robots, weāre people who want to succeed and be sane--be ZAYN while doing so.Ā
Now if youāre having loads of trouble trying to cope with this, i.e. youāre showing symptoms of depression (if you already have depression--it takes a bit for symptoms to last to actually have it be categorized as MDD, correct me if Iām wrong), if you havenāt spoken to your therapist already, maybe you can try the following:
Creative Writing Therapy: hereās a challenge for you that requires some extra loose leaf papers you might have floating around and a working pen/pencil (I would recommend the pen, just so you wonāt be so tempted to erase words) For four days, you will take fifteen minutes of your day and shut yourself out momentarily. Yes, that certainly means no technology. In these fifteen minutes you should write out everything you feel about the current situation. No restrictions. Just write, write, rant, write, and ignore any grammar/spelling issues. Itās for yourself; hopefully you know what youāre saying, right? Again, do this exercise for fifteen minutes, once a day for four days.
Positively reinterpret the situation. Personally, I admire Zayn for taking that big ass step and realizing his health and sanity is important. Some might think of that as selfish, but he was his own person before he went into the group, so he, like you and myself, have every right to do something like this.
Find humor: have you seen the memes? At least, the ones that arenāt insulting, I hope. People are dealing with the situation through humor. We might be the laughing stock of the world, but hey, we can throw a few punch lines here and there as well, even though deep inside weāre very āsad and stuff.ā
Going back to the symptoms of depression thing, if youāre reading this post in maybe three+ weeks after the announcement and youāre still seriously showing symptoms of depression (not the malingering kind, but the real deal here) and havenāt already done so before, please seek help.Ā
This certainly isnāt the most articulate and organized post ever, so Iām sorry. Iām also missing things that Iāve probably thought of in the process of writing; therefore, you shouldnāt really take all my opinions and statements as final. Maybe Iāll add something, but itās likely that Iām not, since I just want to end this for myself. Iāll still favorite jokes and things.
P.S. -- Those who follow me and know me in real life: know that I am slightly embarrassed that you probably just read this LONG ASS post dedicated to the situation. Letās pretend you didnāt read this if you were uncomfortable then!
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