Welcome to Ick Court, where we debate/rate the ickiness of internet trends, “Am I The Asshole”-esque discussions, and various WTF-am-I-looking-at moments that come across our browsers. For this installment, we ask: Did the news cycle around Taylor Swift’s engagement give us “the ick”?
As news spread Tuesday that mega-pop star Taylor Swift and NFL player Travis Kelce were engaged, many online made the same joke: “I’ve gotten so many texts about these two, you’d think I was the one who got engaged.”
It wasn’t just group texts that were going off earlier this week, though. Countless news agencies ― ours included ― sent out “breaking news” alerts about Swift and Kelce’s engagement.
“Never in my life did i think i would find out about taylor swift getting engaged via ESPN notification,” one person wrote on X.
And, unsurprisingly, a lot of people got a little parasocial relationship-y about the couple: “I HAVE TO CALL IN SICK HOW AM I EXPECTED TO WORK TODAY MY PARENTS JUST GOT ENGAGED,” one fan joked.
Swift and Kelce, both 35, have been dating since 2023 after the football player divulged that he’d like to go on a date with the Grammy award-winning songwriter during an episode the podcast he hosts with his brother, former NFL player Jason Kelce.
Ever since, Swifties have been glued to updates about the couple ― Traylor, Tayvis? What’s the portmanteau for these two? ― so it was expected that they’d go into a Tay-induced tizzy over the news.
But if Tuesday was the internet’s virtual engagement party for Traylor (whatever, we’re going with it), not everyone wanted an invite.
Since the engagement announcement coincides with Swift’s promo cycle for her upcoming album, some are dreading yet another Swift-dominated news cycle. (It also coincides with the NFL season. You better believe a segment of football bros ― “a few dads, Brads, and Chads,” as Swift has called them ― are preemptively annoyed about another season of Taylor cam at Chiefs’ games.)
XNY/Star Max via Getty Images
Other commenters thought people, or at least press organizations, should be focused on weightier things.
“I’ve gotten more news alerts about taylor swift’s engagement than i’ve gotten about today’s school shooting in Minneapolis. Our national priorities are abhorrent,” one X user wrote Wednesday morning as details about the mass shooting at Annunciation…
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