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The Coldplay concert affair captivated the internet. But is it time to move on?
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Unless you are living under a rock, you've likely heard the news about that recent Coldplay concert. When a kiss-cam panned to two concert-goers in a loving embrace, only for them to try and quickly conceal their identities. The internet (and journalists) found them quickly – employees at data tech company Astronomer, one whom is the CEO and has since resigned.
The incident sparked many online and offline conversations and memes. Were the two having an affair? Didn't they know they'd eventually get caught? Why would they risk going out in public together? Is this the first time a jumbotron exposed an affair, let alone at a Coldplay concert? Posts on X included: "Sorry I can't, I'm busy liking all the Coldplay affair tweets I missed today because I was at my stupid job." "The seemingly infinite unfolding lore of the Coldplay affair couple has kept me entertained for an entire morning."
Then again, others noted that these are real people. They have real lives and face real consequences. The CEO resigned over this, after all. Maybe it's time to move on.
Media and psychology experts say it's not uncommon to obsess over others' 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 than them.
"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."
But it's worth pausing and reflecting before letting your gossip session spiral too far.
'Endless repeating cycle of controversy'
There's another psychological theory beyond schadenfreude, called "social comparison," that can explain our love for this drama, Elizabeth Cohen, associate professor at West Virginia University, previously told USA TODAY.
Downward social comparison is when 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, 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.'
'Our desire and hunger for [celebrity culture] never ends'
Some gossip is inevitable. Everyone spends part of their day being unproductive – it's OK if yours involves gossiping about celebrities, even the social media kind.
When it comes to celebrity culture, "our desire and hunger for it never ends," said Erica Chito Childs, the Interim Ruth and Harold Newman Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Hunter College. But people are better off focusing their energy on positive rather than negative messaging.
"When you're engaging more of this hypercritical speculation on people's lives, who you don't even know, whether it's celebrities, or it's your neighbors, it's having the same impact," Chito Childs explained. "It's a negative thing."
But this type of speculation won't stop as long as social media and celebrity culture remains intact. The same goes for those who turn into celebrities overnight in viral videos.
"Being a celebrity means carrying a giant target on your back for people's psychological projections," W. Keith Campbell, an expert on narcissism, personality, and cultural change, previously told USA TODAY. "Sometimes those can be great but sometimes those can be really negative."
