The internet is attacking JoJo Siwa — again. Here's why we love to hate.
JoJo Siwa is no stranger to online scrutiny and judgment. But the recent wave of criticism crashing onto the 20-year-old singer, dancer, actress and former “Dance Moms” star has become too powerful to ignore — and it seems some people are enjoying adding fuel to the hateful fire.
After Siwa released her new song and music video called “Karma” on April 5, which features a large cast of female dancers on a yacht, people rushed to share their opinions about her outfits, exaggerated dance moves and voice.
Social media users mocked her for saying that she would love to have one of her exes featured on her podcast “JoJo Siwa Now;" they were also particularly offended by her desire to “start a new genre of music….called gay pop.”
“The internet has taken me through the freaking ringer,” Siwa said during an interview with Billboard. “But at the end of the day, I made the art that I wanted to, and I’m so happy, so proud, so excited to bring this version of pop music back.”
Media and psychology experts say it’s not uncommon to obsess over others’, particularly celebrities, cringey moments and mistakes because it makes us feel better about ourselves. It’s a phenomenon called schadenfreude — when we find pleasure, joy and satisfaction in others’ troubles, failures or pain — that ultimately reveals more about us, the bullies, than them, the victims.
"There seems to be a narrative thread that we like watching people make this climb to wealth and status," Robert Thompson, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at the Newhouse School of Public Communications Syracuse University, previously told USA TODAY. "But once they actually get there, one of the only narrative threads left is to watch them fall. And we do get a lot of schadenfreude pleasure out of that if you look at a lot of the examples of stories we tell."
There’s another psychological theory called "social comparison" that can explain our love for this drama, said Elizabeth Cohen, associate professor at West Virginia University who researches psychology of media and pop culture.
It posits that humans will always try and compare themselves to other people to figure out where they fit in the world. If you perceive someone is "better" than you, you fall into upward social comparison.
“The problem with upward social comparison is that it can be positive, but it makes you feel like you're not where you need to be," Cohen previously told USA TODAY. "So it can be motivational, but it can also make you feel bad about yourself."
The flip side is downward social comparison, where you consume media solely to look down on others, a behavior that tends to dominate the social media landscape.
“Social media activity is an endless repeating cycle of controversy, outrage and our sacred right to say whatever we want about whoever we want with no consequences,” David Schmid, an associate professor of English at the University at Buffalo who studies Americans’ obsession with murder and crime, previously told USA TODAY. “Once we've chewed [a person] up and spat them out, we'll move to someone else and so it goes on, ad nauseam, at a pace dictated by our ever-shrinking attention span.”
More on the internet's damaging power:Gypsy Rose Blanchard's 'fans' have turned on her. Experts aren't surprised.
Online trolling is contagious, and can be addictive
Because the internet offers some degree of anonymity, there’s a “feel and post” cycle that occurs with little regard for its impact on others, said media psychologist Pamela Rutledge. These unfiltered opinions can have detrimental impacts on those they target. And in extreme cases, this type of “trolling can become addictive,” she said.
“When someone finds causing harm to be funny or amusing, they also feel a reward in the pleasure pathways,” Rutledge said. “Similarly, if someone feels manipulated or that [a person is] undeserving, they might take pleasure in attacking them to compensate for their envy, guilt or sense of humiliation.”
It’s a reality now that practically anything can go viral and bring massive amounts of unwanted attention your way.
If you ever find yourself in such a scenario, “don’t invest too much in the feedback you get from people who don’t actually know you," Rutledge said. Why? Because “we love a redemption story, but we’re all too ready to pull someone back down to earth if they get too much glory.”
