What we can learn from wags at war.
In case you’ve been living under a rock these past few days, I’m going to bring you up to speed in what has become a bigger debate than BREXIT!
Basically, Queen Bee wag Coleen Rooney took to social media to expose long-term (or should I say ex) friend and fellow wag Rebekah Vardy, for selling stories to the Sun newspaper. To cut a long story short, Rooney concocted an elaborate plan by creating ‘fake news’ stories and blocking everyone bar Vardy’s account to see if they would infiltrate into the media…low and behold, they did! See below tweet:
In what can only be described as a plot like that of literary legend, Agatha Christie’s ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ (which has now coined what I believe to be the greatest pun of 2019) or an EastEnders’s ‘who dunnit???’, it has left the UK divided.
Rebecca Vardy, who is heavily pregnant (which will become relevant later on) has denied all accusations made against her. Once again, she took to social media to release a statement wishing that Coleen should have called her if she had these suspicions and discussed the matter privately.
This nicely leads on to the point I’m trying to make about privacy and the ‘exposing’ culture that has become a toxic cesspit in a modern era.
Whether we like it or not, social media is here to stay and has become a crux in many people’s day to day lives. Although I have tried (forced myself) to see the positives in using social media, the only advantages I could come up with are career related. For example, being proficient in social media platforms is now a highly desired skill on any CV and could ultimately lead to a career in digital marketing. However, wasn’t SOCIAL media invented as a tool to connect with people around the world, stay in contact with long-distance friends or relatives, develop friendships and connections?
Don’t get me wrong I’d be lying if I too didn’t take a leaf out of Coleen’s book and put my sleuthing skills to use (You have too don’t lie, ‘creeping’ counts). However, what concerns me is the increasing need to publicly expose people which in turn has greater knock on effects for everyone involved. Ultimately, I believe this story to be an example of why the novelty of social media has worn off and when it boils down to it a major contributor towards a failed friendship.
We should all now be aware that anything we put online is never fully private…we’ve sat through enough lectures to know this by now. Therefore, I believe we can learn from the sensationalism surrounding this story even if they are both high profile people (even if one is married to Wayne Rooney…) compared to myself or you.
Rebekah Vardy left, Coleen Rooney right. Bottom left, me watching the drama unfold.
Although many people have taken to show their support for Coleen, it has also raised the question as to whether or not Rebekah should be as cruelly attacked by the public and tabloids given she is heavily pregnant. I’ve decided not to take sides, I’m merely a spectator using this purely as a form of escapism and for my love of memes. However, having said this I would not wish this upon anyone. The level of ‘trolling’ Rebekah has received I can not even begin to imagine.
Basically, what I’m trying to say is that the SOCIAL element of social media is more or less non-existent in today’s society. In fact, according to RSPH’s (Royal Society for Public Health) 2017 report, ‘Social media and young people’s mental health and wellbeing’, concluded startling figures including:
• Rates of anxiety and depression in young people have risen 70% in the past 25 years.
• Cyber bullying is a growing problem with 7 in 10 young people saying they have experienced it.
• Around 70% of 18-24 years olds would consider having a cosmetic surgical procedure.
New legislations being rolled out to ‘reduce’ this e.g. Instagram ‘hiding’ the number of likes a celebrity receives or Facebook continually filtering negative content. However, I believe this to be of no use and instead we need to look at it in a smaller context. I know I’m never going to achieve 1m likes so what use is this legislation to me? Yes, we all have the option to block, report or unfriend someone in the hopes of removing any negativity or simply the old out of sight out of mind trick. But Coleen didn’t do that did she? Coleen didn’t make THAT phone call? So why should we?
I’ll tell you why, save yourself the drama!
Rebekah Vardy’s twitter response.
Like my blog post this story will probably be old news. However, the implications of a story like this upon impressionable teenagers or simply copycats could be detrimental. I don’t want to end my blog all doomy and gloomy so let me challenge you this. Next time you use social media, think about why you’re using it, whether or not you’re actually being SOCIABLE and if someone’s bothering you whether or not it’s worth having a conversation or even a phone call…
Case closed.
My favourite meme
Please let me know your thoughts on this. Do you agree? Who’s side are you taking?
You can find me at,
It’s……….Susan’s Greer’s account.
Joking.
Susan Greer is a final year Bsc Communication Management and Public Relations student at Ulster University. She can be found at: Twitter: https://twitter.com/SusanGr15481563
and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-greer-527b79165/