Photos of Angus Cloud and posts memorializing his life are inescapable on Daphne Peniston’s social media feeds. At 25 years previous, the identical age that Cloud was when he died on July 31, the lack of the Euphoria actor is especially laborious for the Gen Z fan to deal with.
“The original TMZ article was dropped in my group chat and no one thought it was true,” Peniston tells Yahoo Life of when she first heard about Cloud’s passing. “No one believed it.”
That disbelief was expressed throughout social media as individuals posted their emotional reactions to the information. “It doesn’t feel real,” one TikTok person captioned a video. Another wrote, “I’m actually SICK.”
Like tens of millions of followers the world over, Peniston did not know Cloud personally however admired his work on the HBO hit sequence. “I was naturally so pulled into the relationship between both him and [Zendaya’s character] Rue, and him and his [onscreen] little brother, Ashtray,” she says. She was additionally incentivized to study extra in regards to the actor in actual life. “Angus was so fascinating to me because he was found off the street,” she says.
Peniston’s response to Cloud’s dying is not uncommon.
Grieving celeb deaths
“The phenomena around celebrity death is nothing new; it has been there for a very long time. Ever since we’ve had newspapers and television, every time a celebrity dies, there is mourning,” Samita Nandy, director of the Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies, tells Yahoo Life. “But with the perception of social media and the parasocial interaction that we now have with the celebrity, continuing even after death, there is a level of intensity that wasn’t there before.”
Nandy illustrates the evolution of mourning with the concept individuals used to put on black garments “as a symbol of grief,” whereas they now really feel a duty to submit about their grief on social media. And whereas feeling “intimately connected” with celeb figures is not new, the methods wherein followers are partaking with them after loss seems to be completely different.
Most distinctive to the age of social media is the way in which wherein grief has develop into a means of “consumption,” as audiences get a peek at how a celeb’s household is coping, may be capable of livestream a funeral and even have interaction in tributes to the late actor by solid members and mates.
“That sort of consumption, the identification with it, the aesthetics, the pleasure along with it, it seems to reverse what they’re really threatened of, which is mortality,” Nandy says.
Why Gen Z is deeply impacted
The dying of somebody as younger as Cloud can “bring a heightened awareness of mortality” to younger individuals, says Colette Sachs, affiliate therapist at Manhattan Wellness. “Gen Z individuals might grapple with their own mortality and existential questions, leading to anxiety and uncertainty about life’s unpredictability,” she tells Yahoo Life.
“It’s just reminding the young generation that, you know, mortality is inevitable,” Nandy provides.
Although it is a idea that individuals of all ages can battle with, Nandy explains that it may be notably laborious for individuals who have little expertise with dying.
“We haven’t been educated on how to grieve or how to cope when death happens, not just in the case of celebrity, but in general,” she says. “So it depends on where the spectator is coming from. If a grandfather or grandmother has already died, then quite likely that person is coming with that knowledge.”
It can be notably painful for Gen Z-ers who view Cloud as a peer — not solely due to his age but in addition due to what he represented by the character of his work.
“He was a young man who lived a very ordinary life before coming to fame through the hit show Euphoria,” Sachs explains. “They might have seen themselves or their struggles mirrored in the role he played, or they might have related to his real-life background or struggles with mental health and addiction, which he spoke about candidly.”
She goes on to say, “His death could feel like a loss of representation and understanding of their generation,” particularly in the case of Gen Z’s “greater awareness and education on mental health.”
While Cloud’s reason behind dying hasn’t been revealed, his household acknowledged the current lack of his father and shared that Cloud had “intensely struggled” with it up till his passing.
“As a generation that often discusses mental health openly, Gen Z may relate to the actor’s experiences and feel a sense of connection. They might see Angus’s struggles as a reflection of the challenges many young people face, including themselves or their close loved ones, making it even more impactful for them,” Sachs says. “Knowing that the actor was facing challenges may further motivate them to address the stigma and encourage others to seek support.”
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