May 20, 2011

Schwarzenegger Kids Tweeting About The Scandal

Schwarzenegger True Lies DVD

The Arnold Schwarzenegger scandal is out there in a big way. To me, the aspect of the story that stood out was the news that his kids are tweeting about the whole thing.

Divorce sucks, and the situation is hard enough on kids without having to live it all out in public. Clearly there was going to be massive news coverage about the Schwarzenegger shenanigans. AllFacebook says that it’s quite the “viral meme”, and Redbook columnist Aaron Traister (aka WhysGuy) writes that he thinks most husbands are faithful to their wives. What’s different in this case is that Schwarzenegger’s children — the ones he had with Maria Shriver — are tweeting about the scandal as it happens.

From The New York Times:

The family scandal unfolded in real time on social networks. One of their sons, Patrick, 17, posted his distress on his Twitter account, though he presented his name as Patrick Shriver, rather than Patrick Schwarzenegger. “Some days you feel” terrible, he wrote, borrowing lyrics from a Fort Minor song, including a profanity to convey that feeling. He added, “Some days you want to quit and just be normal for a bit, yet I love my family till death do us apart.”

His sister Katherine, who is 21, wrote: “This is definitely not easy but I appreciate your love and support as I begin to heal and move forward.”

Sheesh.

My first reaction was dad-like — get those kids off that Twitter! They shouldn’t be sharing their every thought with the world! Now I wonder if maybe it’s helpful to them to be able to express how they feel without being forced to sit down and do a formal interview. 140 characters can be a fun way to express oneself, and while you are “speaking” to a potentially large audience, there is no pressure to respond to them.

The “tweeting how you feel” thing is also perhaps generational. What I call “oversharing” may seem very natural to a 17-year-old, especially one with celebrity parents. Being a celebrity kid has to be stressful when a scandal involving your parents is the top news story. If tweeting helps relieve some of that stress, I guess that’s a good thing.

Schwarzenegger Whispers Become an Admission – NYTimes.com.

“True Lies” DVD image via Amazon


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