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Ed Sheeran Has Quit Twitter Because Not Even He Is Safe #Online

"I go on it and there's nothing but people saying mean things" :(
Lauren O'Neill
London, GB

For all intents and purposes, Ed Sheeran has #madeit. He is, regardless of your opinion on him, actually kind of a rockstar now. He literally headlined the biggest stage at one of the world's most major festivals less than two weeks ago. Most likely every member of your family born later than the 1920s has heard of him. He's a Big Deal. Huge.

So that makes the news that he has decided to Quit Twitter kind of surprising. He told The Sun: "I've actually come off Twitter completely. I can't read it. I go on it and there's nothing but people saying mean things. Twitter's a platform for that. One comment ruins your day. But that's why I've come off it." He also mentioned that "trying to work out why people dislike [him] so much" has been a "headfuck." I mean, having hurt feelings is one thing but there is no excuse for ignorance, Ed.

This said, though, I had always kind of thought that once you'd reached a certain level of 'enormously rich and famous, given the validation of millions daily in the form of money, adoration and chart domination,' you became kind of impervious to tweets from lads called Craig calling you a ginger prick, but I guess not. In particular, because Twitter so often has a massive problem with the abuse piled onto those who identify as women, and people of minority ethnic backgrounds in western Europe and the US, it seems as though Ed may not have realised what a shite place social media can be for entire swathes of people, famous or not. I suppose you have to take into account that if you're Ed Sheeran, there are probably tens of thousands of Craigs, and no matter how successful you are, they're not going to go away. Pretty much, therefore, the reminder we can take away from The Fable of Ed Sheeran Quitting Twitter is that basically, regardless of who you are, if you're not eye-wateringly fit or a dog with its own Instagram, social media is going to get sticky for you at some point.

Here's hoping, then, that Ed spends his time off productively, really getting back in touch with his own sense of self and remembering that there is a world outside the internet. Maybe he'll do a pasta-making class here; an open-air swim there. I look forward to a few months time when he inevitably logs back on again to share all his great stories and discoveries with us all. The music formed from this time will be, I predict, as average as his output to date.

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(Image via Wikimedia Commons)