Almost a week go Kylie Jenner used her multiple social media accounts to reveal the news that she had given birth to a baby girl just two days previously. She apologised to her fans for "keeping [them] in the dark" and received a wave of praise and understanding, for the most part, in the wake of her descision.
What I want to know is what this means for social media, and whether it was simply a choice to avoid causing stress to her unborn baby, or a stand against the view that her life should exist entirely online.
It made the world obsess over her just that little bit more
Overthrowing Beyonce's throne for the most liked Instagram photo, our first ever glimpse of baby Stormi sent followers into meltdown.
Rather than revealing the name straight away, she chose to break the news (and the internet) slowly, in yet more keep-you-guessing fashion. The Twitter threads were endless about theories as to what it would be, and I hope she was sat at home enjoying the circus of it all.
The outcome? People glued to their phones wanting more. Whether she wanted that directly, she's certainly got it now. If anything, she'll have gained some new-found respect along the way.
Kylie Jenner's baby name post most-liked Instagram picture of all time https://t.co/N7matY0OUg pic.twitter.com/WMsWWzykTW
— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 10, 2018
It made her relateable
By taking away her social media prescence, the mindless trolls who post hate without blinking will've had to shed their frustrations elsewhere. It made people remember that she's an actual person, not an edited image with a filter contorting her body to make you feel insecure.
I'm not suggesting that in order to shed hate you need to take time off social media, but by taking it away she left them with nothing to criticse. They knew she wasn't listening, so why bother commenting?
The f*ck you to social media
People moan at Kylie and her family for craving the spotlight. They built their empire that way, but that doesn't mean we're entitled to front row seats of every second of their lives.
Her hiatus gave the finger to constant updates and showed plainly that it's perfectly possible to live without it. That goes for her followers too.
I applaud her for doing what she felt was right, and I'm fascinated that one of the biggest social media prescences managed to go off-grid for so long.
