Last week, while some of us were still celebrating our Spring Break, something horrifyingly tragic happened in the world of entertainment: Justin Bieber cancelled his meet and greets for his upcoming tour (gasp!). Obviously, this isn’t seemingly a big deal for most, but his fans were losing their minds, to put it nicely.

According to Bieber's Instagram, he just couldn’t handle meeting so many people every single night. He said it was draining him and making him depressed. First of all, I’m not a Bieber fan at all and I’ve never been, but this new social-media-pop-culture controversy was an interesting one to watch go down, in Bieber’s mentions/Instagram comments and through fans who were posting and tweeting about how selfish it was to cancel a meet and greet. This really set me off, and here’s why:

Depression is a real issue that anyone can face:

For some reason, people assume that because musicians or celebrities have a lot of money, travel the world, sleep with extremely attractive people, and go to extravagant events, it automatically means that they are happy or that they have to be. I could sit here and mention all the downsides to being famous, especially as famous as Bieber is, but that would take away from the point I’m trying to make.

Celebrities are humans and that is one factor that they have in common with us. They get their heart broken, they break hearts, people betray them, things make them happy, and things upset them; just like us and yes, they become depressed (like some of us!).

For people that have never dealt with depression, it’s a difficult concept to understand. Depression isn’t about our possessions, money, relationships, or friendships. It’s a feeling of sadness, a feeling that could be felt by a homeless person and by a millionaire alike. It’s a disease, if we’re being technical, not a state of mind.

Sometimes people have to put their mental health first:

Listen, I understand that fans want to touch Justin Bieber in the flesh, see his real life face, and stand next to him for 2.5 seconds for a picture; I guess. But as a long time fan of some really incredible musicians, I’ve built some kind of compassion for them. If one of them were to cancel something in the future because their health was screwed up, I’d be all for it. I’d say, “Please take care of yourself because I care about your well-being, but feel free to reschedule when you’re ready.” Not only because these people are so important to me, but because I get how difficult and important it is to put your health first.

Bieber is letting down a lot of fans and losing a lot of money (considering how many thousands it costs to meet him in the first place), but he’s still doing it to better himself and I can respect that more than anything.

This generation’s obsession with meet and greets is bizarre to me:

If Bieber had cancelled his tour, I would justify his fans being upset. Of course, his mental health would come first still and I’d still defend him in the same way, but I’d understand the sadness. However, this is not the case, and fans are mad that they won’t get their two seconds of picture time with the famous person, which is something that bothers me, maybe because live music is so important to me.

This concept of paying money to meet famous musicians is fairly new, I think. I remember being young and it existing but now, it is huge. Most musical acts offer this service when they’re on tour. I’m all for fans meeting musicians that they love, but I can’t help but feel like it’s taking away from the whole purpose and that’s music.

Seeing great music live performed by people who have influenced your whole life, gotten you through a bad day, or just created stuff that is so damn great, is one of the best and most indescribable feelings. Like I mentioned earlier, I loved so many musicians for an extended period of time, but never cared to meet them. However, if I had the opportunity to travel to a show in another state, I did and I had the best time.

I hope the world doesn’t lose focus on what is really important when it comes to music. A picture with a famous person will get you a lot of likes, but that’s about.

So I’d say Bieber fans should be happy they really get to see him do what he was meant to do, and that’s not to meet you, but perform.

I guess the point of all of this is that we shouldn’t criticize someone who admits they are dealing with depression, even if that person is famous and that music isn’t about meeting famous people, and if someone doesn’t feel comfortable with it, you will be OK.

Life will go on.