Chrissy Teigen still hasn’t learned her lesson

NOTnothing brings Twitter together like the social media antics of a Chrissy Teigen.

On Wednesday, the model and founder of Cravings took to her Instagram account to lament her self-imposed exile from Twitter and reveal that she was “depressed” following a reminder of her past online behavior, in particular of bullying of teenage Courtney Stodden, which drew media coverage. in 2011 for their marriage to 51-year-old actor Doug Hutchinson. In part, Teigen wrote in a long caption:

“I don’t really know what to say here … it feels so weird to pretend nothing has happened in this online world but to feel like shit in real life. Going outside sucks. and not feeling well being home alone with my mind running my depressed head, but I know the way I’m handling this now is not the right answer.

She went on to say of her “canceled” status:

“Cancel club is a fascinating thing and I learned a lot. Only a few understand it and it is impossible to know it until you are in it. And it’s hard to talk about it in that sense because obviously you sound plaintive when you’ve clearly done something wrong. It just sucks. There is no gain. But there is never here anyway. All I know is that I love you, I miss you, and I just needed an honest time with you because I’m just … tired of being sick of myself all the time. day.

The admission comes after several attempts by Teigen to rectify his past indiscretions, including a strangely boring Twitter thread – no pun intended – that was poorly received (and criticized by Stodden) and a Medium post that also missed the mark in terms of specificity and self. -exam. Whether under the direction of a publicist or on her own will, Teigen has yet to casually use the social media platform that has made her a star since mid-June, which for one. social media stranger may not seem like a significant amount of time. . But for one of Twitter’s best dwellers, who had previously struggled to quit the app, it wasn’t entirely shocking that not tweeting left a huge void in Teigen’s otherwise abundant life. .

Nonetheless, this long Instagram legend – she’s been using the photo-sharing app since the Stodden controversy – quickly became the butt of criticism, mockery and even psychoanalysis on Twitter.

“If in the future I am an adult with money and children but I’m still on Twitter whining about half Chrissy Teigen, I’m actually asking you to cancel me ”, tweeted an user.

“When you called people for their shit, it wasn’t a problem” mentionned another user, “but when you have to take responsibility, it’s canceling the club and the culture is a menace and ridiculous and can be ridiculed. Interesting.”

For many, Teigen’s comments about her membership in the ‘cancellation club’ seem to indicate that she still doesn’t understand the seriousness of her actions, namely, as Stodden revealed in an interview with Marlow Stern of the Daily Beast. , urging them to commit suicide on a number of occasions, including via DM, despite the number of times this has been discussed on the internet, nor what real accountability entails beyond writing a public statement . She writes about her cancellation with the same fatalistic tone as many celebrities who are under public scrutiny and don’t really learn from it. To say that there is “no win” once you’ve screwed up publicly and whatever she says is “brutally chosen” shows that she sees being confronted with her past cruelty as something to be overcome instead. that something that she has to learn, amend, and ultimately live with.

Other reactions centered on Teigen’s admission that she felt “lonely” and “depressed” despite the fact that, from the outside, Teigen has a more than busy life and (by American standards) fulfilling – two young children, her husband John Legend, a business, several other jobs, a horde of famous friends and a huge amount of money to spend on all the exotic hobbies and excursions she would like to get into, including including a recent trip to Italy which she documented on her Instagram.

Whether or not people could sympathize with Teigen’s angst, she seemed to refute a very popular assumption shared online that if she was given a certain amount of money, an idyllic relationship, and other privileges, no one would. would spend hours a day tweeting jokes and getting into trivial brawls with strangers online. This is something I have said many times as a freelance writer whose job involves being very online. But this assumption ignores the fact that social media is a very unique feedback loop where the way we communicate and the type of attention and responses we receive can differ significantly from real life – someone says. who can’t do Succession references to someone outside of the Internet.

Perhaps the disproportionate value Teigen seems to apply to these interactions and classifies them with other aspects of her life requires some soul-searching. But as we’ve seen from her vague explanations of her past behavior, looking inward just doesn’t seem like something she’s capable of on her own.