"We Can't Stop" talking about Miley Cyrus: Contextual Impact of Social Media Rough Draft

Over the past several months, it seems as though the public and social media cannot get enough of Miley Cyrus and her crazy antics. What once was a small fascination of the Disney cultivated, big eyed southern girl, quickly grew into a widespread obsession all over the world. On August 12, 2012 Miley Cyrus posted a picture on Twitter of her drastic new hair do, and ever since then the world has fixed its gaze on Miley and hasn't turned away since. This hair cut was obviously very newsworthy as it was featured on many online news sources.

The event that got most people talking was the night of the VMA music awards in which she shared the stage with R&B singer Robin Thicke and proceeded to use foam fingers and an assortment of other props as her personal S&M toys. The performance brought on a tornado of various types of feedback. From comments feeding in about how she dressed, and how she acted or how people are disappointed of the former Disney star. I rarely go on twitter except for rare cases such as these, when I know something big has happened and I'm curious as to know about my fellow peers think of the event. And boy did they have something to say. Literally everyone, from my great-aunts in Hawaii, to my mother in Portland and my friends back east, everyone and I mean everyone on my feed had something to weigh in on how they felt about Miley Cyrus's performance. Even celebrities couldn't help but post their two cents about her racy performance.


Facebook was also live with comments and mostly appalled reactions. My favorite and go-to social media outlet, Instagram was already exhibiting really harsh but also really funny memes of Miley Cyrus and the show wasn't even over yet!

 


After her performance Miley was in everyone's mouths the next day. It went viral, a recap of the awards show aired on most TV news channels and major online news sources such as CNN, Fox News, YahooNews, Good Morning America, and many more. "In the wake of her performance the onetime Hannah Montana star skyrocketed in just about every social media metric available. Cyrus topped Google GOOG -0.2% s hot searches yesterday after adding 100,000 Instagram followers and 50,000 Facebook FB -6.48% likes on Sunday" according to Next Big Sound.

 Miley Cyrus rocked the nation, two hours after the event she was a major trend, sparking controversy all over the place. From my school teachers, to friends and family, and even my pastor, the event seemed to affect them all. What surprised me the most was how long everyone continued to talk about it. Usually an event that blows up on twitter lasts for a day or two and then it gets dry but this particular story thrived. It might have something to do with Miley's great timing. On the night of her now-infamous VMA performance, she topped the 2013 Super Bowl Blackout record–with only 300,000 Twitter mentions per second-second only to the record of 327,452 per second during the 2012 presidential election! Those are some pretty impressive numbers for a 20 year old woman with no publicist or handlers dictating her every move. What makes this concerning to me, is that the public was so focused on down casting Miley, and labeling her as a "slut" and bashing her for not being a role model to their kids all while there are more important issues that needed notice. Why was this event on nearly every magazine cover, headlines major newspapers, being talked about on radio shows, but we can't seem to get a focus on the actual things that are going on in our society that we need spend our energy on. In my opinion this should have never been as controversial as it was and still is.

From what I've been reading some people think that Miley Cyrus is a master of media, and I would have to agree with that concession. Miley has taken over every form of media that exists and has maintained control over it. to the point where everything she's doing whether its twerking on stage with a teddy bear backpack, or lighting a joint on stage it has called the attention of nearly every person who has ever been near a smartphone, newspaper, TV, radio, magazine and the internet. Achieving this spotlight all without a publicity team or handlers.  Miley has somehow found a way to turn her numerous scandals to boost her popularity and image to become this worldwide sensation. Whether its good or bad praise Miley seems to enjoy it all and benefit from it all.