During last Sunday’s episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Kim Kardashian expressed a disquieting fear she wrestles with daily after being held hostage and robbed in Paris in 2016, where her engagement ring from her husband Kanye West and other jewelry, totaling $9.5 million, were stolen. However, as much as she shouldn’t have to face such fear, her security concerns were preventable and are products of her hypervisibility. Kardashian has primarily depended on this hypervisibility for her fame. What happens, though, when one’s celebrity is based on an almost ever-present camera, it permits marauders to violate—at least potentially—his or her body and intrude on his or her personal space. Unfortunately, for Kim Kardashian, people with malevolent intentions could do her great harm if she does not make serious changes.   

Kim Kardashian’s Recognition of Safety Concerns  

Understanding this reality now, Kim Kardashian revealed on Sunday’s episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians that she’s no longer “hungry” for media attention and no longer wishes to “be in the mix the way that I used to.” Her ingenious entrepreneurship—creating a compelling desire for millions to follow her every move and her every thought—leading to millions of dollars and millions of followers has come at a great cost: unsettling anxiety, restlessness about not if another threat to her and her belongings will emerge but when it will. Although people will look at her and simply say, “Oh well, you have it all and shouldn’t have gotten yourself into this situation,” she does not deserve to live in fear.

Yes, for years, she unknowingly exposed herself exposed to such victimization. As an American, however, she has the right to conduct her business through social media platforms without making it acceptable for criminals to exploit her. People should have compassion for anyone who has been robbed and experienced fear that they would be harmed, including raped, by dastards. Even those with far less visibility as Kardashian are targeted by criminals for execrable purposes. We all, therefore, need to think deeply about what happened to Kim.

Lessons to Learn from Kim Kardashian’s Robbery: Use Social Media Wisely  

When one invites the world into his or her home and life daily through social media platforms, he or she must understand how vulnerable to attack this makes him or her. Using social media platforms as dominant marketing tools and means of conducting one’s business is fine; however, he or she must be selective about how much private information to share. Celebrity or not, people don’t need to know where you are all of the time and everything you have in your home or with you.

Kim Kardashian seemed not to consider how dangerous her open diary-style use of social media is. The post-robbery anxiety she’s experiencing a year later helps us all to comprehend how vital it is to adopt safe and smart practices while using social media. When one is finding more and more success through such transparency as Kim extended to followers, this transparency can become seductive, leading to excesses that impair quality judgment. If you’re not careful, therefore, your misguided longing for ever-growing success can land you right into the lap of a rapist, thief, and/or some other type of unwanted criminal.  

Thankfully, it appears, Kim has learned her lesson and will be implementing better social media practices.

Dr. Antonio Maurice Daniels

University of Wisconsin-Madison

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