"Vip, Vip, Hooray!": The Pluralistic Ignorance of Social Media

Harald Schmidt puts out two sweaters for the winter, Olli Schulz worries about his buddy Fynn Kliemann and Kate Bush climbs to the top of the British charts with a very old song.

"Vip, Vip, Hooray!": The Pluralistic Ignorance of Social Media

Harald Schmidt puts out two sweaters for the winter, Olli Schulz worries about his buddy Fynn Kliemann and Kate Bush climbs to the top of the British charts with a very old song. "Vip, Vip, Hooray!" - the weekly recap of the stars is here.

The internet is on fire! Hardly a day goes by when things don't get really busy - especially on Twitter. Excitement, shitstorms, hate and agitation. The Twitter trends also show this week: We live in a culture of outrage. Who was chased like a sow through the village this time? Which politician should urgently vacate his post? And are we, as Harald Schmidt ironically puts it in the ntv talk with Gregor Gysi, whether the acute energy supply problems in winter are we really "sitting there with two pullovers and watching the soccer World Cup in the country of our new energy partner Qatar"? Welcome to Vip, Vip, Hooray!, as we continue to review the hottest topics in the world of celebrities this week.

Unfortunately, whoever sounds and blasts the loudest on Twitter will actually be noticed the most. In reality, this is just a small group of people who literally shoot out of all guns. The Viennese artist Mercedes Andrea Kovar took a closer look at this phenomenon and drew attention to a term from social psychology that was coined as early as 1931: "pluralistic ignorance".

Kovar writes: "Social media in particular promote pluralistic ignorance. It's easy for a financially powerful minority to give the impression of superior power." And further: "A 2019 Twitter study states that ten percent of users in the US are responsible for eighty percent of social media content. The opinions of a few extremely active users therefore seem to be far more visible, than it corresponds to reality. Social media is not a mirror of society. It is the propaganda tool of a minority."

One of the biggest excitement this week: Fynn Kliemann. Has the once so celebrated bon vivant poured a lot of crap? No question! Should Kliemann be held accountable if he behaved criminally? In any case. Is the influencer a foam brawler who, above all, went off the rails morally when he gave away face masks to refugees that did not meet the requirements? Certainly.

But do we - society - have to work hard every day at Fynn Kliemann and derisively feast on what the entrepreneur is guilty of? Not at all! And certainly not now Kliemann friends like the musician Olli Schulz have to be teased because they expressed concern about the emotional state of their friend.

Schulz, who is friends with both the fallen inventor and Jan Böhmermann, says: "What's on my mind right now is the question of how this should all continue in the future? How do we deal with people who have made mistakes?" His legitimate concern: that his friend could break under the public hostilities.

All this noise, this artificially inflated stuff from supposed do-gooders who morally rise above others while they are only cooking with water: a certain tiredness is spreading. About paying close attention to every word you say - it could be misconstrued instantly.

In addition to Harald Schmidt, Thomas Gottschalk also criticizes this development. In an interview with "Bunte", the entertainer, who can be read about mainly on Twitter, says he is an "old, white man", "sexist" and "out of time" that the fun has been lost. Gottschalk speaks of a "heaviness of thought" that used to be completely foreign to him and his colleagues. He also criticizes the comedy industry and many of today's moderators: "Today, comedy is scripted and clocked through" (...), "without the courage to be rude and without room for spontaneity."

And if you take a look at who is now allowed to moderate big evening shows during prime time, you have to agree with the old master. It is not uncommon for people, as Gottschalk also criticizes, not to produce a single straight sentence and are allowed to hold the microphone in front of their face because they have good connections in the media industry or a large reach on social media.

Claudia Schiffer delights her fans with photos on Instagram that show her in a bikini. The model, now 51 years old, looks like 25, are just some of the comments. One wonders how women are supposed to look at the age of 51? It's nice if Schiffer appears youthful, but it would also be perfectly fine if he didn't.

The lucky guy this week is likely to be Kate Bush. The singer gave an interview for the first time in many years. The reason: Bush's 37-year-old song "Running Up That Hill" suddenly climbed to number one in the UK singles chart thanks to the Netflix series "Stranger Things". There has truly never been anything like this! The 63-year-old Brit only expected "a little attention" for the song, but never with such success. That so many people are celebrating their music is overwhelming: "The thought of all these extremely young people hearing and discovering the song for the first time is, well, very special". Jokingly she adds: "The whole world has gone crazy". Until next week!