The world has been up in arms about whether or not the pregnancy of Kylie Jenner was real or yet another publicity stunt.
Although she never revealed it, people guessed it – which just shows the power of social media these days – we are like the FBI, or animals waiting to pounce on any news.
At 8:30 pm local time on February 4, Kylie posted her first Instagram post in almost a month revealing that she was in fact pregnant, and gave birth February 1st to a baby girl. The father of the child is her “new” flame, rapper Travis Scott.
Here is the Instagram post, telling us about how she is thankful for her fans who have let her have her privacy during this time, and letting us all know she is happy.
Congratulations, Kylie, on doing what you think is best for your child. But what does our interest in the topic have to say about our social media usage?
We are becoming interested in things that have no relevance to our lives, at immediate glance. However, this could very well be relevant. Kylie is 21 years old – which by most adults’ opinions and norms is considered University age, and way too young to be having children. Does it teach us a lesson?
She has 102 million followers on Instagram, and that is 1 million more in 13.5 hours since her announcement – we seem to care a great deal about a stranger’s child. We are becoming interested in celebrity lives, watching on social media as if it were a movie on Netflix, but it is not. It is a person’s life.
Originally from Armenia, the Kardashians are famous because their late father, Robert Kardashian, was a big shot L.A. attorney who defended O. J. Simpson in his 1995 murder conviction. Robert passed away in 2003, leaving behind a wife, Kris, a son, Robert Jr., and of course the three daughters we know so well, listed in birth order: Kourtney, Kim, and Khloé.
The girls rose to fame by basically putting their bodies on show for the world. Kim started out as Paris Hilton’s assistant, and the name Kardashian is not even their real name, allegedly. One website claims that it is a combination of Kris and Robert Sr.’s premarital surnames. However, Google says that the name is legitimate, and means stone carver.
And stone carve they did, carving their stories and legacies into every outlet they could. Kris married Olympic runner, Bruce Jenner, now known as Caitlin Jenner, and had two more girls, Kendall and Kylie. They started their series, “Keeping up with the Kardashians”, letting the world into their day-to-day, sometimes staged, dramas. Kendall became an international supermodel, whilst Kylie started up her successful cosmetics company “Kylie Cosmetics”, selling millions of “Lip Kits” per restock, and now a series about the O. J. Simpson case is on TV’s in the USA. Each new Kardashian-Jenner baby is literally keeping the family legacy alive.
Why do we want her lipsticks? Why do men see that this almost desperate need to be close to celebrities is so insane in how vital it is to us? I have a theory: it could have begun when they started publishing magazines for women about how to be more attractive to men, so we constantly seek knowledge of what seems to be the most attractive – social media is quick, real-time access to such information. The other theory is, we are simply interested in each other’s lives, and we look up to celebrities as superior beings.
But I think there is more to it than that. There are currently so many Instagram famous models, who rose to fame because of one social media app; YouTubers, who say they YouTube because they love sharing their lives, their hobbies, and experiences with others. Could it be that we also are becoming more lonely?
There we have it: this generation is becoming accustomed to what scientists call a sedentary lifestyle, and in addition, perhaps as a result, we are becoming alienated from one another, and social media is not exactly helping in the right way. We showcase impressive, edited photos on social media of partying, selfies edited to perfection, and present ourselves in a limelight when most of us truly sit behind the screen yearning for less superficial contact.
Since the time we were great apes, the natural social situation was to have a circle of friends which could extend to include friends of friends of friends, and so on – these circles are now disrupted, or in a positive way, just widened extremely. Via Facebook, we are able to connect with people we have never met, and hear stories about the lives of people we will never meet.
Everything is so far from us, and we can learn from the lives and stories of others, but we connect and share online in an attempt to get closer, yet find ourselves so alienated from real life. Because social media is superficial. It is not getting to know someone, it is getting to know who that someone wishes to be, and wishes to show the world.
We are not who we are on social media. We cannot choose who we are, or what people see in real life, and we should stop letting that lack of control dictate our behaviour. Natural humans have flaws, negativity, bad days, and imperfect, un-airbrushed skin. Lord knows the Kardashians make sure to fix their flaws before presenting themselves on social media.
It is time to see some Kylie Jenner news, think about it and maybe learn from it, put down the phone, and go out, unafraid to form closer, more genuine connections with the people around us. You want to be like these fit, glam Instagram models achieving their goals? Do it – but maybe you don’t need to have a baby just yet.
Featured Image Credit: Instagram/Kylie Jenner
Welcome to my hectic, mixed world. I lack bias like it is a disease. Former Editor at Brig Newspaper, Psychology & English student, autoimmune.
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