The 21st century has brought on a new type of existential stress thanks to the invention of social media. Before Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc. were part of our daily lives, no one cared about what a celebrity thought about breakfast burritos. Or if they did, they just wrote fan fiction about it. But now, celebrities can connect with their audience via a picture, or in 140 characters, and some people are great at it. Stars like Conan O’Brien and Kat Dennigs have killer Twitters that perfectly walk the line between connectivity and the veil of curiosity that a celebrity must always have. But some stars can’t handle the format (or the trolls) and have a social media breakdown. Keep scrolling to check out the most notorious public breakdowns ever caught on social media.
Australian model Essena O’Neil came out out as anti social media in late 2015, saying that the entire artifice of a social media celebrity was a bunch of hogwash, and it inspired a ton of social media backlash and debate about whether this was just another public breakdown or if she was speaking the truth. But O'Neil isn’t the only star to have had a nervous breakdown on social media. Everyone from Alec Baldwin, to Applebee's has had a rough night on Twitter, or an Instagram breakdown.
To examine some of these cases more in depth, keep reading this list of the most notorious social media breakdowns. And remember to vote up the craziest breakdowns that have ever happened over social media.
The Most Notorious Public Breakdowns Ever Caught on Social Media,
Alec Baldwin
After attending James Gandolfini's funeral and realizing that the star of The Sopranos was never on social media, Alec Baldwin gave up on the microblogging site as well. This was also after he let loose a wildly homophobic rant, but sure, it was definitely the funeral that inspired him.
Amanda Bynes
In 2013, America's sweetheart Amanda Bynes had a very public nervous breakdown across almost every social media platformwhen she started posting photos of her cheek piercings, calling Jenny McCarthy ugly, telling Rihanna that she was the victim of domestic abuse because she's "not pretty enough," and said that she wanted Drake to uh... well she wanted Drake to do some stuff with her. She was institutionalized for 72 hours in 2014.
Applebee’s International, Inc.
In 2013, when a snarky St. Louis pastor refused to tip a waitress, saying that they "give god 10%" the waitress posted a photo of the receipt to Twitter. Then Applebee's fired her. Unsurprisingly, the Internet freaked out. In less than a week, people were bombarding the Applebee's Facebook page about their mishandling of the situation, and then the person who ran the Facebook page started responding. Not only that, but they were tagging Facebook users, deleting comments, and creating an all around PR nightmare.
Charlie Sheen
If there were such a thing as a "fun" nervous breakdown, Charlie Sheen would be the guy to have one. If you somehow slept through 2010-2012, those were the halcyon years when Sheen quit his show, got on a different show, trashed a hotel room, and documented it all on Twitter. He signed off by saying, ""Reach for the stars everyone. Dogspeed cadre. c out." We couldn't have said it better ourselves.
Nicki Minaj
In 2012, Nicki said "what's good" to her fan site NickiDaily after it leaked audio from her then upcoming album. Before she deleted her Twitter she said, "Smdh - don't cry for me argentina." Don't worry though, Minaj shortly returned to Twitter to feud with a myriad of pop stars.
Amy's Baking Company
Amy's Baking Company is the "what not to do" for small businesses trying to use social media. After appearing on Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares where they made themselves look like total goons, they hopped on Facebook and wrote bon mots like, "You are all little punks...You are all nothing." After the story went viral they started taking names. The restaurant closed in 2015.
Chris Crocker
Or as you probably know him, the "Leave Britney Alone Guy." In 2007, Crocker posted his now infamous video, in which he defended Britney Spears and devolvied into a teary mess. After the video, he was a guest on shows like Jimmy Kimmel and even had a cameo in Meet the Spartans, so maybe this social media breakdown was the best thing to happen to him.
Head of Duggar Family's Home Schooling System Meets the Internet
When Bill Gothard, the 80-year-old founder and former president of the Institute of Basic Life Principles (the program used by the Duggar family of 19 Kids and Counting infamy), hopped on Facebook 18 months after facing charges of sexually harassing and molesting several female employees, he was bombarded with comments from Facebook users who identified themselves as Gothard's victims. The page's moderator tried to clean up all the negative comments, but he didn't seem to realize that the Internet lives forever.
Deli Owner Can't Stand Heat, Posts Racist Screed in Kitchen
After receiving a one star review from a customer named Jesse Lopez-Gonzalez on their Facebook page, the owner of AJ’s Deli in Nampa, ID commented on the review saying, "Sorry I don’t serve taco or burrito, this is a deli not a Mexican restaurant , but even if I make taco or burrito? I wouldn’t serve u sorry punk as b****.” After the story went viral, AJ's received 233 one-star reviews and the page was disabled.
Surprise! Arkansas Republican Is Not a Fan of Gay Pride Parades
Senator Jason Rapert (R) took to Facebook in the summer of 2015 have a fit about Conway, Arkansas's 12th Annual Gay Pride Parade. He said that the dastardly gays chose to hold the parade on Sundays "because they understand that the lifestyle they are glorifying on our streets is considered sin by every Bible-believing Christian and they use their parade on a day reserved to worship God and reverence the Lord to mock Christians.”
Then he went on to rail against homosexuals nation wide, saying, “It is one thing to proclaim you are a homosexual and demand attention to yourself, but it is quite another for homosexual activists to cross the line and accuse Christians of being ‘bigots’ and that their belief that homosexuality is sin is ‘hate speech.'” No one tell this guy about the Logo Network.