Don't Abuse The 'IsOverParty' Twitter Trend, We Need It
A whole lot of us are spending more and more time on Twitter during all this. Like above and beyond the "way too damn much" total we previously were. And because we can't really get out and live our own lives, we're living vicariously through the tweets of the people we follow. What that's turned into is a bunch of people becoming PIs, digging up dirt on famous people, and constructing a hashtag stylized as #isoverparty. Then they're off to the races as a trending topic.
Used at its best, that hashtag and what comes with it is a good way of starting a dialogue and even getting an apology or something going. For example, over the weekend, rapper Doja Cat addressed a song she did in 2015 called "Dindu Nuffin," which appears to mock victims of police brutality. This might not have happened without that hashtag showing up.
It goes a little deeper or farther back, too. Even more recently, Twitter was throwing around #JimmyFallonisoverparty after discovering that he'd done blackface back in an SNL sketch in 2000. And it's not like Fallon couldn't have seen this coming -- back when there was that rash of politicians caught in blackface, people duly noted that Fallon (and the other late-night Jimmy, Jimmy Kimmel) stayed out of the conversation. It wouldn't be a great idea to drag up their own messes, and Fallon is also fully aware of these hashtags.
Where this becomes a problem is when we get a little further into the weeds. There was an attempt to have an over party for Adam Driver because he served in the military right after 9/11. Regardless of anyone's feelings about the United States' military involvement overseas, what would be the end goal? There are tons of retail workers, salespeople, Zamboni mechanics all over the country that also enlisted in the wake of 9/11 -- should they lose their jobs too? No, that would be insane.
Then, it becomes an even bigger problem when you look at the engine behind these "over party" trends. Sometimes, you'll see one like the one that happened to Tom Holland, who has done nothing wrong besides looking a little too good in tights. What's happening is random stans, start these hashtags up just to stir the pot.
Sometimes it's a rando like that one, a suspended account that may or may not have been falsely taking credit. But a lot of other times, it's a bunch of K-pop fans just spamming a trending topic to promote a fancam, which is significantly less sexy of a thing than you were probably hoping for.
At this point we're just begging for the spam to stop. If we need to "cancel" a celebrity, there are probably ways to do it that don't require a hyper-bored community on Twitter. Being the stan who cried wolf is gonna make it harder to take the real deal seriously.
Top Image: NBCUniversal Television
