Bieber

Justin Bieber is the marmite of Twitter; you either love him or hate him.  For his legions of fans, known as True Beliebers, the very mention of the infant pop star’s name can bring on a frenzy of evangelical zeal, whilst for Non-Beliebers, it is met by a sigh of derision or a foul-mouthed tirade.

Whatever your opinion of Justin Bieber, he is undeniably the King of Twitter.  The young Bieber is the second most popular official celebrity account after Lady Gaga.  One Twitter employee commented that ‘racks of servers are dedicated to Bieber’.

Here are some Justin Bieber Twitter facts:

• 23,579,427 – Twitter followers (at last count).
• 322,244 – Identical social media messages for Bieber’s birthday in March.
• 11,000 – Average number of new Twitter followers per day (not even the bubonic plague spread this fast).

Whilst many of us might begrudge this angelic star, with the immaculate coiffure, proclaimed love of God and clean lifestyle so in contrast to our flawed musical idols of yesteryear, it is not his actions that have caused the most offense, but rather unsavoury elements within the hordes of True-Beliebers.

One example of this is when Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth (of Hunger Games fame) recently announced their engagement.  Within minutes it was the number one trending topic on Twitter.  Yet no sooner had we digested this news when Selena Bieber became a top ten Twitter trend.  For those not acquainted with Selena, she is Selena Gomez, Bieber’s girlfriend.  They are not in fact engaged and at any rate it is a ludicrous assertion, child marriage is illegal in America, even in Utah.  The whole escapade was merely an effort by a large number of jealous Beliebers to steal back the limelight.

There have also been more serious instances, including the case of Mariah Yeater, who after filing a paternity suit against the singer was bombarded with death threats.  And then there’s the incident in New York, where Bieber was recently promoting his fragrance ‘Someday’, when a man clambered over the barriers and wrestled the young Bieber to the ground.  It transpired the man was Tom Petterson, an undercover cop, who was concerned that Bieber’s fans were becoming rather boisterous and that a riot was imminent.  This misunderstanding resulted in Tom being the subject of numerous death threat tweets.

‘I close my eyes and I can see a better day,’ sings Bieber in his song ‘Pray’.  Perhaps he would be better opening his eyes and taking action against the increasingly fundamentalist elements within his congregation.

On another subject I have just released my book.  Click here to find out more about it.