If you are anything like senior Sneha Sajan, the break-up of Justin Bieber and his girlfriend Selena Gomez took you totally by surprise.
“Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez [surprised me] because I thought they were going to get married and have babies,” said Sajan.
It seems like every other day in the media there are stories and rumors about celebrity couples breaking up. Although most celebrities try to keep break-ups low key, they usually do not remain a secret for too long. Once the word gets out, the frenzy begins, especially if the break-ups are totally unexpected.
Some teenagers take these break-ups seriously, as if they know these celebrities personally. While some people take these break-up to heart, others do not put as much emphasis on them.
“Just today we were talking about break-ups in my class for celebrities and stuff,” junior Kirsten Coleman said. “So I say [teens] are a little bit obsessed and they should just stay in their own relationships.”
Some celebrity break-ups garner more interest than others. For example, the recent break-up of Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber caused quite a frenzy among Bieber fans when the break-up hit the Internet.
The shock for some people came because they thought these two would never split, but others were excited at the thought of Bieber being single again. Another relationship that was really shocking was the break-up of Chris Brown and Rihanna in 2009. Although Brown assaulted Rihanna, people responded to both sides of the story.
“Chris Brown and Rihanna [surprised me], because of how famous they were and so many people started hating Rihanna after the incident,” junior Nija Burnette said.
On the other hand, there are celebrity couples who everyone seems to know are not going to last for a very long time. When these couples break up it is not such a shock, but it may still cause a stir.
“Kim Kardashian and [Kris Humphries] for sure,” Coleman said of the 72-day marriage. “I think we were all counting the days until they got divorced, and it was a really short time before they got married so I knew that wasn’t going to work out.”
The significance of a celebrity break-up has a lot to do with how relevant and connected people feel to that certain celebrity. If people feel a connection to a certain celebrity, then they are probably going to be more interested in their relationships.
“When you listen to somebody’s music and you like them a lot as a person, you just get involved in their lives, especially if it’s a celebrity because their lives are on TV and you hear about them a lot,” Burnette said.
Most of the time, unexpected break-ups that end in violence really get teenagers talking. These break-ups evoke all kinds of emotions from teens and other people, whether it is happiness that the two are no longer together, sadness because they broke up, or anger and shock over the violence. Prime examples of this were the violent break-ups of Chris Brown and Rihanna and football player Chad Ochocinco and his wife Evelyn. These break-ups ended abruptly in violence and stirred up controversy and talk among teenagers and people in general.
“The one between Ochocinco and Evelyn surprised me because he head-butted her and other stuff, but I wouldn’t think he would’ve done something like that,” Burnette said.
Among other subjects, celebrity relationships are definitely a topic of discussion for teenagers.
“They want something to talk about and they want to base relationships off of what celebrities do,” Sajan said.
— By Kiada Capel