This morning, like any other morning, I did my early morning ritual. (Three “mornings” in one sentence. I did well.) You know, checking all my social networks to see what’s new and stuff.

I went on Twitter and saw yet another Justin Bieber related Twitter trend. There’s about a million of them each day (might be an exagerration), so I don’t usually care. But my curious social media addict self made me (quite often) check these trends to see what’s been written. I call this research.

Today’s trend caught my interest a little. Rather than the usual “marry me Justin” or “follow me please please please” or “I’m so desperate for you” kind of trends, it was #MissionHappyBieber. Huh?! What?

So I clicked the trend to learn more. To cut the story short… Basically, supposedly Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez broke up over the weekend. Some Bieber fans were like “OMG Justin is now single, marry me instead” but other Beliebers (yes, this is actually what they call themselves) were like “we have to cheer Justin up instead of being happy over his misery”. And that was their mission: to cheer Justin up so that he would somehow feel better (because breaking up as a teenager could possibly be the worst thing ever).

Here are some tweets to give you an understanding about this whole mission/trend:

How cute. (Yes, sickeningly cute.)

Earlier today, before I saw all these shenanigans on Twitter, my hubby and I had a conversation in the car about what it means to be a fan. He couldn’t grasp the idea of being a fan of something or someone. Me, on the other hand, I’m all about being a fan. I go from one thing to another. Some sticks longer than others. The Backstreet Boys for example (PS: did you know that they’ve got a Christmas single out now? Awesome stuff)… Or Manchester United, the best soccer team in the whole entire universe. Some others come and go. Like contestants from reality TV shows.

So I told him this: I totally understand why some One Directioners or Beliebers would cry at the sight of their beloved idols. I totally get why a contestant from Big Brother can get so many Twitter followers when all they did was to stay in a house filled with people for 3 months. I get it. I’ve been through it once myself when I was young. And now, even though I no longer go all out (I didn’t cry in the Backstreet Boys concert few years back), I still understand the madness. I understand the psychology of being a die hard fan.

And with Twitter, the madness is amplified tenfold. With Twitter, you can now follow other fans who talk about the same mundane things as you do 24/7. With Twitter, you feel like you’re that much closer to your idol, because they are on Twitter and you can message/mention them if you want to. With Twitter, your favourite celebrity might even follow you and reply to your love notes! With Twitter, everything is amplified and if you are not careful, you will be caught in this bubble where everything is just about you, other like minded people like you, and your dearest idol/s.

To some, that might be a scary thought. “Oh no, my kids are going to grow up in this environment?!” But to some others, Twitter provides the best outlet for them to feel just that little bit closer to their dream/idol.

Is it wrong to be a fan? I don’t think so. But is it wrong to be a die-hard fan? I don’t know. What do you think?