Chrissy Teigen’s Twitter Departure And The Vicious Cycle Of Social Media Toxicity
Not even the tough can handle trolls.
Lev Radin / Shutterstock Chrissy Teigen has announced her departure from Twitter saying the negativity and backlash on the platform have taken an increasingly damaging toll on her mental health.
Teigen’s Twitter account has become infamous for her sardonic humor, satirical takes on politics, and hilarious pop culture musings.
However, her departure from the social media app is proof that even those we see as having the thickest skin and sharpest tongues aren't likely to withstand years of mass critique from strangers online unscathed.
The model and TV personality has amassed over 13.7 million followers who regularly watch her go to bat with everyone from cookbook authors to a former president.
But these followers have also witnessed, and even contributed to, some of Teigen’s lowest points.
Now it looks like the lows have finally outweighed the highs, as Teigen released a lengthy Twitter thread explaining the reasons for her departure just before deactivating the account completely.
"Hey. For over 10 years, you guys have been my world. I honestly owe so much to this world we have created here. I truly consider so many of you my actual friends," Teigen wrote. "But it's time for me to say goodbye. This no longer serves me as positively as it serves me negatively, and I think that's the right time to call something."
Photo: Chrissy Teigen, Twiiter
Teigen has since shut down her, account making this her most permanent departure from the platform to date.
Teigen has had a tenuous relationship with Twitter over the years.
One of Teigen’s most colorful and famous Twitter spats was a several-year-long battle with former President Donald Trump.
Trump previously branded her as John Legend's "filthy-mouthed wife" following discussions about criminal justice reform and blocked Teigen on Twitter after she wrote, "Lolllll no one likes you," to him in 2017.
But that was neither the first nor the last time Teigen had engaged in a Twitter war.
In 2020, Courtney Stodden accused Teigen of bullying her in a series of tweets from 2011 to 2012. Stodden was a teenager at the time.
Stodden rose to fame at the age of 16 when she married Green Mile actor Doug Hutchison, who is 35 years her senior — a marriage that she now says was rife with trauma.
She later revealed that Teigen’s tweets had contributed to her struggles.
In one example, Teigen had tweeted, “go. to sleep. forever” in response to a tweet from Courtney that read, "On the 8th day of Christmas my true love gave to me: Eight Erotic Elves.”
“It bothered me so much," Stodden shared. "I didn’t realize how much it affected me. Chrissy told me to take dirt naps. It made me see she’s part of this dark issue. Telling girls to take a dirt nap. She needs to learn, apologize and never do this again.”
Later in 2020, Teigen engaged in another Twitter row with cookbook author Alison Roman.
Roman had criticized Teigen for following up her cookbooks with a line at Target and an Instagram page Ronan described as a “content farm.”
"[It] was like: Boom. Line at Target. Boom, now she has an Instagram page that has over a million followers where it’s just, like, people running a content farm for her," Roman said. "That horrifies me and it’s not something that I ever want to do. I don’t aspire to that. But like, who’s laughing now? Because she’s making a ton of ... money.”
Those comments sent Teigen to her favorite place to hash out disagreements, Twitter, where she expressed her disappointment.
The spat divided Twitter. Many posted aggressive messages of hate toward Roman, calling her out for criticizing successful Asian women, while others labeled Teigen a hypocrite for being unable to accept candid, albeit somewhat critical, comments similar those she had directed at others in the past.
Teigen ended up taking a Twitter hiatus, saying, "This is what happens. The first day, a ton of support, then the next 1 million reasons as to why you deserved this. It never fails."
She return soon after, but recent events show that the model has been unable to reconcile with the platform.
Those who dish it out can’t always take it, but should they have to?
Teigen’s most recent statement about her departure prompted some critique around how she, as someone who has spread her share of negativity online via her massive Twitter following, can now claim to feel hurt by her experiences on Twitter.
But Teigen says her Twitter activity and the media's portrayal of it misrepresent her.
“I’ve always been portrayed as the strong clap-back girl but I’m just not,” she wrote.
Photo: Chrissy Teigen, Twitter
This comes just months after Teigen was the victim of heinous online trolling following the loss of her third child to late-term pregnancy complications.
Teigens experiences on Twitter serve as an prime example of how even those who might appear tough cannot, and should not, simply accept the brunt of relentless abuse online.
Many might argue that Teigen cannot be a victim as well as a perpetrator, but the toxic cycle of social media discourse can make both of all of us.
When you fight fire with fire, everyone gets burned.
Alice Kelly is a writer living in Brooklyn, New York. Catch her covering all things social justice, news, and entertainment.