Former Nickelodeon actress Lindsey Shaw has tearfully announced a break from social media after being flooded with “hate” messages for mocking a viral dance craze started by young black men.
The one-time “Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide” star insisted she was just poking fun at the difference between millennials and Gen Z when she first referenced the dance video that has been viewed 100 million times.
“Hey. Are we OK? What the f–k is this?” the 32-year-old actress said in her initial TikTok, mimicking the slowed-down dance alongside the caption “Millinneals win.”
But she was soon back online in floods of tears, saying in a video, “The hate mail in my inbox is not OK. OK? I did not mean anything in any kind of way,” she insisted.
“I’m not here to offend or belittle anybody. At all. I thought that the millennial and Gen Z thing was a thing on TikTok. This intention wasn’t that serious, y’all,” she said, wiping away tears.
“I am learning every day, as I think everybody is. And this kind of hate just needs to evaporate from the planet no matter who it’s towards,” she said.
“Crocodile tears? No, dude! This is like my soul out there!
“I am sorry you were offended,” she said, saying that “we all need to vibrate higher for the future.”
“I think for my own mental health I need to take a step back from social media,” she said.
“So yeah I’ve gotta just go off of here for a little while, but I appreciate you, I love you and I’ll be back,” she vowed.