Society often takes too much pride in villain-ifying social media. Whether the issue be a rise in mental health disorders or young adults being unable to afford their own homes, those who are gradually losing their own balance as the Earth continues to rotate closer around technological advancements will gladly design their own misconstrued-interpretation of social media in which a senseless pattern of thread and pushpins, tailored to their own, frail understanding of technology can point to higher screen times as the impending monster of modernity. But this train of thought seemingly only acts as a pacifier for these older generations to continually suck on whenever the process of comprehending the implications of modern technology exhausts too much energy from the mind. It’s almost as if blaming social media is a source of self- comfort, as if the only way some older individuals can feel familiar and knowledgeable of social media is to oppose it entirely. In this sense, the anti-tech movement has transformed into more of an extracurricular activity in which all its followers gather to mourn for a “simpler time”, gradually withering into numbed senses as they conjure up fables of a distant future where technology is strung through the human anatomy like IV tubing.Though initially, I only believed such an image to be some exaggerated image that only exists in a thinly-thought-out editorial cartoon, I’ve recently discovered an open-wound of Tik Tok in which these supposed tech-addicted teens are starting to bleed into reality.
The entire function of Tik Tok is that of an online bottomless pit in which the longer you allow yourself to fall, the more exotic of personalities you find. In this process, I landed on the Neverland of Tik Tok, a phrase I coined to describe a specific taxon of tiktokers who immerse themselves entirely in made-up issues and refuse to grow up. Within this pretend bubble of a fantasy world, all the lost boys and girls of TikTok can endlessly play make-believe and act as though each miniscule and minor problem they encounter is of a dire importance that must be shared to a larger audience. While these instances tend to be more centered on the individual, such as a girl complaining of the corporate world not being considerate enough to accommodate for her condition of “time-blindness” or a person so trapped beneath the circuit board of their phone that they fake having Dissociative Identity Disorder by amassing an entire system of over 27 alternative identities, this chronically online plague can transcend into more of a movement of the masses as well. Such was the case with Rachel Zegler. Making her Hollywood debut in Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story in 2021, Rachel Zegler was quickly brought into the spotlight for her vocal talent, going on to book leading roles in Shazam 2, Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, as well as playing the titular character of an upcoming live-action Snow White film. However, it was this very role of Snow White that the chronically online cult began overzealously crucifying Rachel Zegler’s career. Throughout the various press junkets nearing the release of the Snow White film, many found issue with the fact that Zegler outwardly mentioned her disdain of the original Disney classic. Given how this new remake pivots more on a storyline of female independence and strength, Zegler frequently noted how she felt as though the animated Snow White was a shallow housewife-archetype that only embodied the limits of what women are capable of. While seemingly innocuous in theory, Zegler’s Snow White interviews instantaneously weaved her career into a casket, with millions of people chastising Zegler for actually being anti-feminist, as they believed her to be looking down on women who are housewives. Moreover, other painfully obsessed Disney enthusiasts began hammering Rachel’s wrists to the cross, re-echoing the same idea that Rachel Zegler is not deserving of the role of Snow White since she claims to not like the original film her character is based on. While it’s reasonable to criticize Disney for continuously pushing out these hollow remake movies that are only cash-grabs wrapped up in a half-baked depiction of “female empowerment”, Zegler should not be looked at as the root of this issue. In any given press tour, an actor’s job is to promote the film and its strengths or unique qualities. As the goal is to generate interest for the movie, Zegler was not “spreading toxic femininity”, but was rather simply fulfilling her duty by promoting how this remake will be different in the sense that the movie is more driven by Snow White being her own human being instead of ending up with a prince. The entirety of this issue becomes that much more ridiculous when you realize that this controversy is oriented around a movie made in 1937. Though Snow White could have definitely played an important role in one’s childhood, if you truly are that offended and emotionally hurt that someone just doesn’t like a character with a personality as two-dimensional as the animation and was practically asleep for the majority of the movie’s run time, I think that the last thing you should be able to do is criticize other people’s beliefs.
This whole scenario is as if these individuals inhabit this world of the internet so often that it’s almost as if their brain cells have been completely replaced with performative-woke-mob-mentality that these online platforms proliferate. In turn, these chronically online users are only manufactured into players of some twisted game of morals that makes them believe they are a savior of the corrupt Hollywood system by taking down the intended target. Of course, it’s an understatement to say that there are an infinite number of toxic and depraved celebrities who fully deserve to be de-platformed. However, to willingly hunt after Zegler over these other degenerate celebrities is tantamount to arresting the person slightly going over the speed limit instead of the person who just committed a hit-and-run. And it is in the “hunting” complex that holds the biggest issue. In intentionally hunting for the faults in Hollywood starlets, it gives the public too much self-rigehousnessness in their own hatred, shooting down prey for the slightest of errors just to make them feel as though they are somehow superior to the luxurious lives of the Hollywood elites to compensate for the fact that they themselves can never have such luxurious lives.
This chronically online mindset is even more important to harp on due to its disingenuous nature. For instance, after the release of Hunger Games: Ballad of The Songbirds and Snakes, in which Zegler played the leading role of Lucy Gray to public acclaim, all backlash and online hatred dissipated into pure praise of her talents. Thus, the entirety of this Rachel Zegler scandal was nothing more than some trend rooted in overinflated internet tantrums and false prospects rather than being a genuine belief.
A similar phenomenon of overinflating minor issues can be seen through the audience reception to another new Disney film, Wish. While being a Disney movie, Wish is obviously intended to target younger age brackets. However, on Tik Tok, the film’s major despisers are grown adults, who are picking apart the film for using too much toddler-based humor and not being able to appeal to their sophisticated intellect. Tik Tok itself has a very accessible nature; anyone from anywhere could hypothetically record themselves saying virtually whatever they want to. Yet, with this ability, I think people are confusing themselves into thinking that having something to say is equivalent to having something important to say. In treating these relatively microscopic dislikes or pet peeves in such a serious manner, it outlandishly augments the truth of the situation. While ranting and complaining are standard components of human nature, turning every slightly , negative incident or experience you encounter into a needlessly long demagogue strips you from the fibers of reality in which you start to believe that every other individual or piece of media exists solely to meet your interests and standards, and if it doesn’t, then it deserves to be slandered on all fronts. At the end of the day, we need to be able to step back from the screen to put everything into greater perspective. And when everyone agrees to do so, only then can we age past this mental infantilization that occurs through the trap of chronic onlineness.