Since the dawn of social media, every one of our virtual movements has been tracked, logged, and posted, almost as a museum of “Us” separated into individual profiles. This has proved itself to be a new form of good vs evil. On one hand, it’s a great time capsule to be able to go back through and mark how you were feeling or what you were doing on a specific day, but not only does it hold good memories, but in most people’s cases, it holds our mistakes as well. As we have all come to learn, once you post something on the internet, is essentially there forever. Chronicling the ups and downs of over 2.77 billion human beings. Through all this online documentation, a movement started in 2015 and then blew up in 2018. Cancel Culture enveloped our social society in a checks and balance system that is useable by anyone with a social media profile. Anyone can play “judge” for a day, by going through someone’s posts, finding something they don’t like, and calling to “cancel”, said person. It’s turned into, in my opinion, an epidemic. And while it may start with good intentions, it often turns into something quite problematic.
Cancel-Culture (also known as Call-out Culture) has grown to the point that you can now find it defined on Wikipedia as “A call to boycott someone – usually a celebrity – who has shared a questionable, unpopular, or a controversial opinion on social media.” That definition right there I think should scare us. Because according to it, an individual should be in a way scared of expressing their opinions due to fear of being “canceled” because people don’t agree. While I personally have no experience in fame, I can imagine having your every move monitored and critiqued by the mass public, who don’t even know you personally at all can be daunting. And with the recent wave of canceling, that creates even more pressure to conform your online presence into less you and your own opinions/views, and more into what you think the people want to hear or won’t react negatively to. In this respect, I think Florida Georgia Line said what everyone needs to hear perfectly in their song “People Are Different”:
“Left wing, right wing, jailhouse, freedom ring, old school, new school, everything in between, like a snowflake, no fingerprint the same, and people are different”
Instead of ridiculing people and tearing them down for having a differing opinion than you, we as a social society need to accept and celebrate the fact that people are different! We may think similarly to some, but not to all. And with so many different brains out there all wired uniquely, we need to celebrate and explore our differences instead of trying to “cancel” those who express them. One of the biggest issues I have with cancel culture is the readiness to judge someone’s past. I’ve personally done things I’m not proud of, and I’m sure you reading this have too. So, how would you feel about someone meticulously going through social media posts from years ago with the sole purpose of finding a mistake and blasting it to everyone? That’s what I’ve seen a majority of self-proclaimed “cancellers” doing, and it’s doing a lot more harm than good. For instance, they often do not take into consideration the time period in which they are pulling the words. Our society has gone through dramatic changes in what is “ok” and “not ok” to say in the past few years. People have gotten soft in a way recently, always finding something to be offended over. Whether it be a shirt at Target, a word, or a hairstyle. The reality though is that that was not the norm 10 or 15 years ago. People spoke more loosely and just didn’t care as much in a sense. Some see that as a bad thing, saying that we weren’t sensitive enough to other people. Yet at the same time, even when people were doing those things, the world kept turning. The sun still rose, and in my humble opinion, it wasn’t that big of a deal. So, when cancellers pull tweets or posts from that time, they are completely disregarding the society that that was said in, where obviously the poster was not canceled by saying that.
I understand more when someone posts something inherently racist or intentionally offensive, or even when wrongdoings come out of the woodwork that has greatly affected individuals (for example, Bill Cosby) and don’t get me wrong, I’m not condoning that by any means, but when you try and tear someone down for their past, because they made a simple mistake years ago, you are disregarding all growth that the individual has made since then. Like previously stated, people make mistakes! People say/do the wrong thing sometimes! And we are all people!!! Understandably, the wave of social media has made it so it is harder to forget, as our actions are immortalized forever, but we cannot use it as a weapon to stomp people back to the ground when they are trying to grow and improve as a human being, a right we all have. Doing that reverses our progress as a society and can seriously harm peoples reputation.
If I could instill in the reader anything to end this piece it would be to pay attention to why people are being “canceled”, and before you join the crows in calling, put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Is the issue in question recently and an honest reflection of the person at hand? Have you ever said anything similar that you now know was wrong and wish to grow and learn from? Would this have ever affected you if you hadn’t run into that #cancelled post on your timeline? And most importantly, is it really worth your energy to tear another person down because of their past? Just remember that the internet can be a wonderful and helpful tool if used in the correct way. It can serve social justice and celebrate people for who they are. So, before you add to the oil spill of virtual negativity, just be sure you’re actually passionate and educated on what you’re saying. And then maybe this internet ecosystem can thrive positively.