For Millennials. By Millennials.
Twitter is seeing another great war yet again. This time it’s Ariana Grande and NBA fans raging against one another. As entertaining as the tweets are, it revolves around pretty much nothing. It all started when an NBA fan tweeted something controversial against Ariana Grande.
So, an insensitive and inconsiderate NBA fan wanted to throw hate on a celebrity for no reason. He also threw hate on the LBGT and the feminist community on Twitter. Perhaps it wasn’t intended for the star to do something about this, but Ariana Grande didn’t want to let this man go. More so than the fact that he hated her fans, she was more upset about this man being insensitive.
Fans of the singer were not going to take the insult and went on to support her. That was all it needed to get the battle started. It’s hilarious how two seemingly unrelated worlds, Hollywood and NBA, are doing all it takes to win a silly struggle online.
Savage tweets from both NBA and Ariana Grande fans started flowing in.
Ariana Grande herself reacted by making a couple of tweets and subtweets. It looks like she sent her fans to attack the NBA. This reaction by her was probably all that the guy who started it needed. He was feeding on hatred and seeking momentary popularity.
This is not the first time something like this has happened, especially on Twitter, where fires are burning all year round. Celebrities, their fans, and sports fanatics are all active. Bursting out on minor incidents, tweets or comments is average for celebrities and sports fans. It’s just a matter of a few seconds before hashtags get something trending on social media. From the ‘In My Feelings’ to the MeToo movement, people have done, posted, and exposed so much that we can’t describe.
Trends of Twitter Feuds
Especially in times when society has become so fast that reputation is made and broken in a matter of seconds, things get pretty heated when something gets trending. Plus, more and more celebrities rely on social media to gain fame and popularity. Fandoms have become as important as anything else today. Maybe that’s contributing to the societal disruption we slowly feel. If Ariana Grande’s fans were less reactive to the NBA tweets, the war would have died almost instantly. But fan groups are so touchy about either sports or celebrities that neither of the two would back down.
The Real Deal with Ariana and NBA
The point here is that people started being passionate about supporting the sports institution and the celebrity to a point where it seemed like they were worshipping them. Ariana would have probably let this one hater go if it weren’t for the comment on the LGBT and feminist community, she meant to highlight the fact that there is still ignorance in this society, and we need to make people accountable for that. It wasn’t about having everyone love her unconditionally; that isn’t possible. You can’t prevent all hate comments in a world as vast as the online web.
How NBA Fans And Ariana Stans Looked At It
But somehow, the fans of both Ariana Grande and the NBA took it as a matter of respect and dignity for the things they choose to follow. It was about unconditionally supporting the institution and the celebrity, not the actual message. But that support was translated through hatred for each other’s community. That’s fighting fire with fire, and it’s not always the best course of action. As a society, we need to realize why we’re suddenly following a bandwagon and being passionate about something. It should stand for something and not just aimlessly throw out support and hatred wherever you feel like it.
