The frenzy of unrelenting online bullying further destroys the mental health of those already suffering, and everyone has a role to play
Gabbie Hanna / YouTube
Influencers are subjected to huge amounts of negative attention and trolling, especially in the era of "cancel culture."
Sometimes it's because they are in the midst of a scandal, but other times they become a target for no real reason at all.
The world was shocked when British TV star Caroline Flack tragically died by suicide on February 15. Her private life had been a constant focus of certain corners of the press and social media for years.
The impact the media frenzy and sheer volume of negative attention had on Flack's mental health cannot be ignored, especially as she spoke about struggling with depression several times.
It's right to question people in the public eye, but the line between fair criticism and a rampant hate mob is constantly blurred, contributing to the destruction of those already suffering.
Complete shock rippled through the UK when British TV star Caroline Flack died by suicide on February 15. It was a tragic end to a story that had been picked apart and cruelly scrutinized by certain corners of social media and the press for years.
We cannot — and should not — speculate about the many different reasons why someone takes their own life. Samaritans guidelines advise against it, and people's lives reach tragic ends for reasons nobody else will understand. There is no single overarching explanation for why someone decides they can no longer deal with the world.
But it would be careless to ignore the impact the media frenzy and sheer volume of negative attention had on Flack's mental health, not least because she spoke about it herself many times.
Her experience was not unique, as so many stars, both on TV and in new media, face poisonous vitriol from all sides.
The unrelenting pressure of fame
British tabloid newspapers published hundreds of articles about Flack over her career, then deleted some of them as soon as the news broke of her death. The pressure never let off, despite her being open about her battles with depression on several occasions.
Her partner Lewis Burton, ex-boyfriend Andrew Brady, and many other famous friends condemned how Flack was treated in the public eye, calling it a "trial by social media" and "media dogpile," while placing the blame with her management, the Crown Prosecution Service, and unrelenting cruel commentators.
When Brady posed the question of who was to blame for Flack's death in an emotional blog post, he answered: "All of us."
"Her personal life [was] plastered all over the press like a bad sitcom," he wrote, attacking the "vile paparazzi" and "invasive articles."
"Her love life was a joke to you people," he said. "Anything she did was recorded, exaggerated, and paraded for the world to see."
Jeff Spicer / Getty
Flack was the famed presenter of the hit ITV reality show "Love Island" before she stepped down while awaiting trial for alleged domestic abuse against Burton in December.
ITV released a statement live on air after claims from fellow TV star Amanda Holden that Flack was abandoned and "thrown to the dogs" after the charge.
"ITV has asked us just to make it clear – because there's been some discussion about this – that they did actually keep in close contact with Caroline since this domestic incident and they were constantly offering her assistance and help," Richard Madeley said on "Good Morning Britain."
The company also launched "Britain Get Talking" in October, a campaign to get families talking to each other about mental health.
But brand consultant and CEO of Studio BE, Brandon Relph, told Insider he doesn't think there are sufficient protections in place, particularly since a major study released by the Film and TV Charity last week found that nearly nine in 10 people (87%) working in film, TV, and cinema in the UK had experienced a mental health problem, and over 50% had considered suicide.
"I don't think they've gone far enough," he said. "We thought it was bad, but turns out it's even worse than we thought."
'I don't think I fully was prepared'
"Love Island" had already faced criticism for lacking proper mental health care to help the stars deal with their newfound fame, and better ease them into all the negative attention associated with it. Two former contestants died by suicide after leaving the villa — Sophie Gradon in 2018 at age 32, and Mike Thalassitis in 2019, age 26.
One islander from the 2018 season, Savanna Darnell, fell into a deep depression after being on the show for just a few days. She told Insider a major factor was all the attention she received when logging back into her social media accounts.
"It's like I went on holiday for a week and came back to people knowing who I was, talking about me, writing things about me, and wanting pictures with me in the street," she said. "I don't think I fully was prepared. I thought I was. But I didn't expect it to be how it was."
Her short stint living in Casa Amor attracted more hate than she ever realized was possible, with trolls calling her the "ugliest contestant ever" and telling her she should die from cancer.
"It ruined my self esteem," she said. "I hated the way I looked, I became stressed, my acne flared up because of it, which made me feel way more self conscious. It was a crazy experience."
The hardest part of being skyrocketed to fame was the intense wave of public scrutiny, she said, where the public thought every aspect of her life was up for grabs because she was on TV.
"They can comment on your appearance, your life, your family, your friends," she said. "It's horrible."
Darnell said she thinks TV companies have started looking after their stars better "because of past events," but she would have benefited from therapy and help as soon as she exited the Love Island villa.
"Even when you feel like you don't need it, you should be made to go, because I was in denial when I came out," she said. "I felt like I was fine when I really wasn't."
Love Island / ITV
The bully, the target, the bystander, and the defender
Media Psychologist Pamela Rutledge told Insider cyberbullying creates roles: the bully, the target, the bystander who willingly allows the abuse to continue, and the defender who speaks out.
"But even having defenders may not offset the negative emotions of hurtful content if someone is already depressed," she said.
Fame makes someone an easy target for bullies and haters, she said, with repetitive, intentional, and personal insults they can make anonymously on social media. This encourages the individual to behave in a way the would be unlikely to in real life, and fuel "cancel culture" through the excitement of behaving badly.
"Social media makes it easy for haters to gain critical mass, forming a relentless cyber-mob spewing vitriol that can undermine self-image and worth," she said.
"A celebrity can be reached through mentions and hashtags, and the interaction is visible to a larger audience, encouraging similarly needy others to join in and experience whatever thrill they get from anonymous meanness."
When it's all coming at them at once, it's hard to remember where this hate stems from: A reflection of the bully's many shortcomings.
"Whether that's a projection of the bully's aggression and sense of powerfulness, a projection of unwanted feelings, jealousy, obsession, a lack of empathy, or an attempt to increase their own sense of social power and rank by diminishing another," Rutledge said.
Online stars fight hate all the time
Rutledge said quitting social media sometimes feels like the most logical solution against online abuse, but this isn't viable for influencers whose careers depend on keeping in touch with their fans.
This is a quandary for influencers, particularly YouTubers, who are subjected to flurries of criticism and hatred at the online community's whim. Gabbie Hanna, a creator with over 6 million subscribers, for example, is particularly susceptible to scrutiny. So much so, it feels like everyone watching her videos is just waiting for her to screw up.
She spoke to Insider for a previous article about her struggles with body confidence, saying she doesn't even look at her comments anymore.
"I feel very detached from social media," she said. "I basically use it as a job where I post and then I go and then that's it. I don't harp on what other people think or say because it can get very hateful and I'm just not at a place in my life where I'm willing to deal with that type of energy."
Gabbie Hanna / YouTube
The latest installment of drama came from a mistake she made in a recent now-deleted video. She followed a TikTok trend where she transformed herself into an "e-girl," but didn't realize she had included an image of Bianca Devins — a teen who was brutally murdered in 2019.
Online commentators and tea channels soon noticed Devins' photo and accused Hanna of using a dead girl's story for attention.
YouTubers and Twitter users called her a narcissist and made accusations about her character, even after she uploaded an apology. A video later posted by Devins' mother and sisters still wasn't enough to halt the flood of hate, with channels still accusing Hanna of crocodile tears and trying to manipulate the situation.
Relph said one of the major problems with cancel culture is how people make knee-jerk reactions and upload or comment them in real time. The online world moves so quickly that taking longer to react is frowned upon and portrayed as avoidance.
Hanna, for example, blurred out Devins' photo when she became aware of the criticism. Then she remained silent while she contacted Devins' mother. Onlookers, meanwhile, read this as callousness because it fit into their narrative of Hanna being a villain. In the end she could do nothing right.
—gabbie hanna (@GabbieHanna) February 14, 2020
Psychologist Pamela Paresky told Insider in a previous article that the human brain's concept of community makes us start to see strangers on the internet like neighbors. If we think they do something we think is wrong, we don't like to associate with them any more.
This means drama elicits incredibly emotive responses from fanbases, and online personalities can quickly fall into categories of all good or all bad. Their reputations are considered fair game and the repercussions of bullying on their mental health are not even considered.
When Logan Paul and James Charles went through their scandals in the last couple of years, for instance, they lost hundreds of thousands of subscribers in a matter of hours.
"I wouldn't be surprised if they thought their careers were coming to an end," Relph said.
Creators often take breaks after a scandal to try and block out the hateful noise, but it's hard to do. A close circle of friends and family might not be enough to offset the feeling of the whole online world turning against them, leading to a growing sense of intense isolation.
"Social media platforms are ill-equipped to police haters," Rutledge said. "The sheer range of what constitutes hateful messaging makes that untenable except in the most blatant cases. No one is watching out for us but ourselves."
Those in the public eye are free to scrutinize, and so they should be — they are public figures setting an example to generations of younger people. But there has to be a line between fair criticism and a rampant hate mob, because how can anybody be expected to learn from their mistakes if everyone turns against them?
One of Flack's last public messages before she took her own life has now become her legacy. She told people to simply "be kind."
"I'm lucky to be able to pick myself up when things feel s---, but what happens if someone can't," she wrote in a post raising awareness for mental health day last October. "Be nice to people. You never know what's going on. Ever."
It seems as though no matter how many tragedies we experience, the gleeful take-down circus is rolled out time and time again. We all play a part: the casual commentators, journalists, and the companies standing by, complicit in watching the downward spiral.
Cancel culture can't be blamed for every suicide, but there is no doubt it plays a part in destroying the mental health of vulnerable people who are already suffering.
Everyone in the world has a responsibility to think hard and really ask themselves what role they want to be known for — the bully, the bystander, or the defender.
Read more:
Creativity and depression don't go hand in hand, but it can seem like they do — here's why
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