Amanda Bynes: Are We Fueling the Train Wreck?

CELEBRITY MELTDOWNS are among some of the most attention-grabbing events in our society today. If news regarding U.S. relations in the Middle East is on one channel, and the latest public display of a celebrity-gone-crazy is on the next, I can guarantee you that the majority of us will be inclined to tune into the latter. Even if we resist, we can all admit that it is a burning temptation. But why? I'm going to venture to say that it's more than just a simple boredom with our own daily lives or the need to diagnose others' mental stability; but it's our obsession with the human condition. While watching or reading, we begin to speculate that person's mental condition, whether or not he or she is on drugs, determine whether it's an attention stunt, comment on 'how sad' it is, and some of us may even go the extra mile to feel pity for that person and mention aloud to our screen or the tabloid paper in our hand the latest health or religious remedy to cure the celebrity's circumstance. But could the media, and our desperate need to assess all of this on a very grand, public scale be contributing to some of these celebrity train wrecks? This brings me to the latest subject of my pity: Amanda Bynes.

If you were a child in the 90s, your first memories of this budding child starlet were nothing but positive. If you were a parent of a child in the 90s, you knew Bynes as a young talent who contributed to your child's extremely annoying, 'Amanda Show' interpretations and 'The Girl's Room' imitations (sorry again, mom). The bottom line is that most of us came across, and were entertained by, Amanda Bynes at some time or another. Although it has been some years since her last role in the hit film "Easy A" in which she played a cynical, over-zealous Christian advocate (oh, the irony), Bynes is no longer being discussed for anything that pertains to her talent or any of several projects that she has worked on in the last two decades. She has become everyone's new favorite celebrity-gone-crazy. I find I can hardly blink without hearing about her latest run in with the law or obscene twitter rant. But perhaps, we are giving celebrities like Bynes, exactly what they want; a stage for relevance, an outlet for their melt-down, a response to her cry for attention. Only, not a constructive response. We are perpetuating the negativity, only driving these celebrities further into their state of psychosis.

I know what you're thinking,"Listen to this contradictory hypocrite telling us to stop talking about celebrities who seemed to have lost their minds, and here she is doing just that!"

Think of this post as a sort of anti-venom. Me giving a small dose of poison to combat a more potent amount of poison that is contributing to the deterioration of our society's morale and certain high-profile individual's well-being.

The fact of the matter is, we've all been through hardships. As cliche as it sounds, it's the truth. I can't speak for Bynes or any of her celebrity peers who have been the subject of this negative obsession, but I know that whenever I've dealt with any personal demons, it never helped to be relentlessly criticized. If anything, it drove me further into myself and disabled me to make any sort of positive strides. I can't imagine, what that would be like with the eyes of millions marking my every move and judging my every action. (Well, I imagine I would be in some insane asylum by now).

Disclaimer: I am not defending any of the many bizarre and morally questionable (to say the least) actions that Bynes has made in recent months. But, I am begging that we, as a society that thrives on pop culture, begin to think of the impact that we have on cases like this. With all that said, Amanda, I am rooting for your turn-around. America, I have faith in our ability to do better, as decent humans.