Mean Tweeting: 21st Century MudSlinging

We love. We hate. In this 21st century world Twitter has given us a new tool to communicate our feelings with people about what we love and hate. But the question is when does your tweet go from a form of communicating your opinion to just being down right mean and cruel? Also when does that cross the line into be a cyberbully?

Cyberbullying became a phrase popularized this season of "The RealHousewives of New York City". Jill Zarin claimed that Simon VanKampen cyberbullied her. Many people have made their negative opinions known about what they think on that situation but again people only looked at the surface of the issue. Faithful followers of twitter that watch all twitter accounts of the stars from that show have seen nasty comments go back and forth between all of them. Simon VanKampen has received a lot of nasty tweets since the airing of the episode. I can say that when Simon VanKampen asked his followers for any proof of nasty tweets he made about Jill Zarin, I did send him one. One comment that had stood out in my mind was after Jill had called the now infamous episode of Ramona/Mario and Alex/Simon soft core porn, Simon made a nasty remark that if it is porn that Jill should add it to Bobby's (Jill Zarin's husbands) porn collection. He also made "apologies" that the intimate moments were not based on the exchange of services rendered for expensive jewlery. (Read into that as you will)

I tweeted that remark in reponse to Simon's call for alledgedly nasty Jill tweets, he retweeted it, and I received fifteen mean tweets from his followers saying horrible, disgusting things. (We will just forget he asked for proof) We ,the faithful followers of our favorite celebrities, know no one is innocent or safe from nasty comments, but when does it really cross the line into cyberbullying?

Here is one of the cleaniest comments tweeted to me from a Simon follower after my pro-Jill stance:

"Simon is being real, Jill is being a Jew"

I was stunned and blocked them two seconds later but if I get this kind of comment I can not even begin to imagine the hateful comments and volume that celebrities get. People blame celebrities for blocking people? I do not blame anyone for not wanting to read hate from hateful people.

People who faithfully follow Jill Zarin and read her last blog at Jill Zarin.com will remember reading that she alluded to Simon consorting with a certain individual that bullied and stalked her family. While many people claim Jill was being over dramatic I happened onto that website one day of that individual in question and how do I even know it was that individual in question? On her website she pretty much bragged about it, of course from a victimized perspective. She claimed she was a target, but what is her whole website devoted to, hate! Her entire website was dedicated to her hatred of Jill Zarin. I am not a therapist but I think a line is crossed when you devote a whole entired website to your hatred of one person, especially when it is not someone you know personally. Honestly, who has the time or energy for that? Could you imagine what a person could do with all the energy they spend on what they hate and redirected it to something they love, they could be making the world a better place.

My only thoughts are this, if you are making nasty tweets, question yourself why? Would you want people sending you that stuff. Secondly if you continually are sending nasty tweets to someone ask yourself why do I feel the need to do this? What inside of you is prompting you to do this? Again if you would not want someone doing it to you, why do you want to do it? As Jill Zarin said in response to criticism about blocking haters, "why give hatred room to breathe?" Hatred is a disease to your soul and is one of the most destructive emotions of humanity. (Remember Hitler?) Hatred causes only harm in this world and to participate in it is to destroy the world, even if it is one mean tweet at a time. I offer you the antidote to that nasty disease though and that is love. Acting in love will make the world a better place, wouldn't you like to live in a better place? (I know I would)

Question:

To Gossip Girl - there are no confirmed reports about Jill moving to London. Bravo seems to stick to a tight budget, unwilling to fork over the money for a copy right for Lisa Wexler's(Jill's sister) song to air that she sang at Jill's birthday. The cost of producing a show in London would be astronomical...my guess no.