The Fappening

There’s been a lot of talk about #TheFappening recently. For those who are not familiar with this term, The Fappening is the official name given for mass leak of over 200 nude celebrity photos. Amongst all the pictures leaked Jennifer Lawrence, Rihanna, Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, Kaley Cuoco and Kate Upton easily drew the largest number of outraged fans who rushed to their idol’s side to defend them and ensure that these images do not go viral and demand people not view them. Ironically, by rushing to social media to rally behind their idols, they actually blew the whole situation out of proportion and made sure that more people viewed these pictures.

In an era where highly confidential information exchanged within governments are leaked and several of thousands of online accounts, PC’s and electronic devices get hacked on a daily basis. It’s a given fact that the internet is not a safe place. Highly sensitive confidential information regarding numerous countries gathered based on credible sources which the US government collected was published on the internet and they couldn’t stop it for more than a few hours. To this day the website is airing not only the America’s but several countries’ dirty laundry which was hidden from the people because it was “best that they did not know”. If the US government cannot keep their documents safe with some of the world’s leading online safety experts ensuring this, it’s safe to assume that no other website on the internet is safe from hackers.

Over the past few years the bond between celebrities and their fans has evolved in to a very peculiar relationship.  Fans currently want to know everything there is to about their idols and will scour the internet daily to find out news and share it amongst themselves and rejoice about the fact they get a morsel of information daily. As they get to know more about their idols, they start coming up with nicknames and referring to something they read about their idol as if it was a real life incident which they were actually present to witness. In their mind they form a mental friendship with their icon and start referring to them as if they were actually close friends. This unhealthy obsession sometimes grows within some fans to the point where they will buy anything and everything which their idol acts, sings or publicizes simply for the fact they endorse it and want to brag they are the most ardent fans. Media companies are well aware of this obsession allocate huge amounts of resources to fuel this obsession and make sure they sell their product be it a magazine, website, Radio or TV show to increase their profits and achieve company goals not matter what the cost.

Even though celebrity gossip has always existed, a degree of respect was shown to celebrities comparatively a decade back. But an undeniable factor for celebrities being able to live a relatively normal life style was the unavailability of evasive technologies to the general public. In an age that everyone has a camera, a seemingly uninteresting event can be manipulated and distributed over the internet for everyone’s enjoyment. Everyone has to be aware of where they go and who they talk with at all times. A drunken night where you have one too many drinks with the wrong crowd could result in your pictures ending up all over a various social media websites, which could lead to it being picked up by someone and edited and share among his/her friends, and that being shared among more of his/her friends, which would lead to the picture(s) going viral. A good example of this would be this picture of this Fat Asian Kid who gets photoshopped. Technologies such as long distance cameras, drones with cameras, and micro bugs that allow eavesdropping being freely available to the general public, stalking people has become very easy. A very good example of this would be Kate Middleton being captured sunbathing topless on her private island while she was on vacation on a private island.

As much as people like to believe in the illusion that they can live their lives the way they want to, the fact of the matter is we must conform according to the social norms and standards to be able to fit in with everyone and in order to live a normal life. No matter how old we are, we strive to keep up with our friends and peers to have something in common to connect people and appear to be one of them. When we live in this kind of a community, the majority of people ensures they control their actions, reactions, words and what information they reveal to the world in the fear of appearance of being outcast as abnormal and an nonconformity in the perceived social norm. Even though I maybe a “nobody” compared to a lot of people, I ensure I maintain a strict control of what I upload and distance myself from any material which could cause any harm to my reputation. Being a celebrity, controlling what information about yourself is released on to the internet is very hard. The freedom of speech allows anyone to post on any topic and attempts to retaliate over bad press could only go so far before it becomes “not sporty” in the eyes in of the adoring fans, which could lead to a steep decline in popularity and hence less receiving less work. With celebrities being stuck in this precarious situation, most celebrities are smart enough not post or add any more information than what most of the paparazzi obtain illegally.

With racism and sexism being used in the wrong way, people are fast to call out celebrities and their own peers over a sentence which in most cases is misinterpreted or twisted for their own advantage to mortify them. A minute detail which can be taken out of context can be blown out of proportion and cause huge rackets on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. The funny thing about this this can actually work the betterment of a celebrity where an act of charity they do genuinely with no intention of telling anyone could be highlighted. But in this scenario by people taking to social media they blew up something which was shared among  only reddit and deepweb to the entire world.  I bet reddit is having a huge spike of traffic and will have huge boost of new members in the coming months. The paparazzi got wind of this and boom! The entire world knows about it now.

As much as I sympathize for all these girls, most of whom I am a fan of and do not condone this act of privacy breech in any way, this situation is partially to blame on these people for having  these picture on their computer or iCloud accounts or even on their mobile devices given their stature in the community and the effects it could cause them if they get out. These pictures should not have been posted on the internet. Period, whether the pictures were saved on their iCloud accounts or on a secure drop box. Hackers do not have to even break in to accounts; they can simply grab the data while it's travelling from one place to another via a network. That’s how advanced hacking is. Millions of people get hacked daily. Forget celebrities, everyone should be careful of what they upload or share over the internet knowing that the internet is unsafe place. Its better to be safe rather than being sorry, learn to live with the possibility that there is a chance that you could be hacked and when that day make sure that there isn't anything incriminating which allow someone to  take control of your life and black mail you emotionally.

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