Stereogum has republished Trent Reznor's final note to the raving masses that have driven him from his social media experiment.
With over 600,000 followers, Trent Reznor flexed the star power that comes with being the voice of a several generations of angsty youth. It seems as though a tiny fraction of his fans have ruined the party.
Could it be that the classic Hollywood fear of over-engagement be true? Celebs are struggling to figure out what role they want Twitter, Facebook and their social media presence to play. Reznor says:
I approached that as a place to be less formal and more off-the-cuff, honest and "human"... If this has bummed you out or destroyed what you've projected on me, fair enough - it's probably time for you to leave.
Figures of music represent lifestyles and amorphous identities. It's hard to be larger than life when you're also a real person. Is the NIN frontman the first casualty in a trend? We'll see.
Think about the scale -- at worst the trolls numbered fewer than 600 people, or 0.1% of his followers. Given any large enough collection of people, you're going to have some ugliness. But suddenly these 600 had a way to reach out and ruin someone's day.
We're definitely still figuring out this computer thing. For now, trolls win.