The tragic death of Caroline Flack might say a lot about modern celebrity, social media and our bullying culture – but is it anything we didn’t know already?
We can expect the internet to be awash with pious appeals from celebs and civilians to hashtag #BeKind for about a week, before we all go back to business as usual.
Publicity-shy pundit Piers Morgan was out the gate within minutes of the terrible news, paying tribute in a manner that ensured he was mentioned in every breaking news story.
He has made a career recently out of (what some might call) challenging famous women – most notably Meghan Markle, with whom he seems to have an unhealthy obsession.
Pundits like himself can build a big profile out of demonising – or defending – celebs.
Morgan did defend Caroline, but you’d have to wonder if that might have changed depending on which way the wind was blowing.
It’s a kind of piggy-backing on the huge notoriety generated by the royals, or by phenomenally popular shows like Love Island.
And to play the game, everybody has to be painted as either a saint or a sinner – often within the same week or between two episodes of Good Morning Britain.
The public and the media have been quick to demonise “social media” as the cause of our toxic culture.
But celebrities in particular know they are signing a pact with the devil when it comes to sharing all – and exposing themselves to every eejit with a smartphone – on Insta, Twitter and all the rest of them.
And it’s not just famous people of course. You can offer the most innocent opinion or news on Twitter and have a rake of trolls come at you for the weirdest reasons.
Lads who – you assume – are fine in real life, will have no problem, say, telling somebody who insults their favourite football team they hope his entire family dies in a plane crash.
You could see social media as just one giant, rowdy pub.
You walk in, there’ll be a couple of sound-heads chatting about football in one corner, hot girls taking selfies in another and the odd weirdo bouncing around trying to start fights.
So how do you keep your head and your sanity and not let the spanners get to you?
I’m on Twitter 24/7 myself and I often recall the words of my mother who was a pretty smart and pretty tough lady.
Two things she always told us: “Always be kind and polite to people – until they give you good reason to do otherwise. After that, feck ’em!”
And another, in relation to people offering their unwanted judgments and opinions: “A donkey might be roaring at you out of a field, you’re under no obligation to roar back.”
One way to stay sane is to remember to only respect the opinions of people you respect.
If they don’t know you, their opinions of you are not worth a hell of a lot.
Caroline Flack – on TV at least – looked to be a bright, warm, funny person.
But only those who were close to her can talk about who she was and what she really went through.
