What are we thinking?

I saw all of the commotion about that new song by the young Rebecca Black. I decided to find the song on Youtube, listened, and it sucks. Wrote about it on Facebook, wondering how someone actually let her into the music scene. I almost thought "Friday" was a parody of all of those party songs, except then I found out that Rebecca Black was serious when she went for this. Her parents helped her make her dream a reality.

Okay, like with Justin Beiber, I cannot say that I could do any better. I sing sorta on key, but not really. The dogs still start to howl when I think I'm alone and I burst out into song. I'm sure the neighbors are amused.

So I don't like the song still, and I understand the want of making fun of it. Then I saw an interview with her, and thought back to how I was at that age. I felt some remorse for laughing at the more "innocent" parody videos out there. But especially to hear her say that the worst comment she saw on a video was someone telling her to "go cut your wrists" and to "become anorexic so that you would be pretty" left me feeling awful about the whole situation. She's 13.

These young stars, who are idolized by people their age and made fun of by the rest of the world, what exactly are we doing when we pick on them? What is it but a bunch of gossip, and in the case of Youtube, cyberbullying an impressionable young kid (not directly we think, and yet she reads them)? They shouldn't even be exposed to these things at this age, but I mean, this is the dream for them- to be put out there, to be famous. From a young age, we want to be idolized, loved by many. Some say That's what she gets for being out there, but there's something very wrong, very cold about that. An easy target doesn't make what you're doing right.

People, what are we doing here? One of the ways we connect is in our discontent, and that seems harmless. Having an opinion? Not bad. But when it verges on bullying, when it's something that you wouldn't say or think about anyone else? Why do we see these people as so immune, so different from the rest of us?