On Thursday, Miley Cyrus sent the Twitter-verse into a Trending Topic meltdown when she deleted her account. Yes, that's right -- Miley Cyrus is no longer on Twitter!
The drama continued today as her dad, Billy Ray Cyrus, asked her to rejoin the social networking site publicly on Twitter.
And just a few hours ago, J-14 chatted exclusively with another member of the Cyrus clan, Metro Station's Trace Cyrus, to get his thoughts on his lil' sister's big decision. Trace's band is currently on tour with Miley and dished about the whole situation to j14.com exclusively.
J-14: Were you surprised what a huge deal it was when your sister Miley Cyrus deleted her Twitter account?
Trace Cyrus: I totally understand why it's a big deal. Kids want to feel like they can communicate with their favorite artist -- they feel like they're missing something now. Miley got rid of her Twitter.
J-14: Everyone's speculating different reasons, but do you know why she did it?
Trace: I think she just wants to be more free in life. She said it to me the best that I could have heard anyone say it -- she said she wants to live her life more than tweet about it, which completely makes sense to me. If she's spending all her time on the computer just talking about what she's doing, there's so much more life out there to live. When she said that to me, it really all made sense.
J-14: Do you feel the same way? Will you be deleting your account?
Trace: I'm hanging onto mine. I haven't felt like it's taken over my time too much yet. I still feel like I have some control over my life. I'm trying to be good about it.
J-14: Your dad, Billy Ray Cyrus, has really been trying to get Miley back on Twitter -- he event tweeted about it!
Trace: My dad -- he shocks me with that! I think it's the first Web site he's been able to use ever -- at all. He's just trying to keep the whole world on it! Like with MySpace and everything, my dad didn't even know what that was. And then all of a sudden, Twitter came around and he was taking pictures of my new tattoos and posting them and I was like, what's going on? I've never seen this happen before! My dad's just now getting into the 21st century.
J-14: Even your youngest sister Noah is part of the Twitter world?
Trace: Noah's on it too. Noah's the next star of the family for real. She has a crazy personality for a 9-year-old. She's always on it saying different stuff. She's on there going live on Ustream sometimes. She's out there trying to make a name for herself, even at a young age.
J-14: But don't you worry about her online like that at age 9?
Trace: I definitely do -- I see the things that people say on there. As much good as there is out there, there's always going to be just as much evil. She's young and I don't want anything to hurt her too much, but I think growing up in this kind of family, I think she's smart enough to know what to read and what to take to heart and what's she should let roll off her shoulders. She does it on her own, but she also has some people help her.
J-14: What do you think it is about Twitter that makes your family -- and the entire world -- so intrigued by it?
Trace: I really don't know what it is about Twitter. I think MySpace and Facebook seemed to be the thing before that. I remember when Twitter came out, Blake, my keyboard player in my band got it and I kept saying that I'm not going to get a Twitter -- I'm not going to do it. And now I'm on Twitter way more -- I hardly even get on MySpace anymore. You feel like you're part of that person's day. If you feel like you know what they're doing, you feel that much closer to the person. I think it's way more intimate and personal than any other Web site that they've had out.
J-14: Do you feel like you can be free with your @replies to your friends or do you feel like you have to monitor it because the world can see it?
Trace: I definitely monitor what I say to people. Like if you're talking to a girl that you're interested in, you're definitely not going to be saying what you'd say to her in a text message. You definitely have to monitor what you say!
Photo: Courtesy of Columbia Records
