Twitter feuds seem to keep the world going around these days. Politicians, celebrities, and even your grandma are all active users on Facebook and Instagram. In this hallowed ground called the comment section is where cancel culture has been birthed. As if being in the public eye isn’t hard enough, imagine having the world breathing down your neck and waiting for your next mess up to go viral on Twitter? This is not excusing the behavior of some individuals. This article is coming down to the popular “call out” culture that many people are familiar with in the loud and active world of social media. http://theconcordian.com/2018/11/cancel-culture-and-problematic-celebrities/ Let’s break down “cancel culture” or “call-out culture”. Call-out culture can be briefly defined as a form of public shaming that aims to hold people accountable for their actions by calling attention to their behavior, usually on social media (UD, 2019). We all know that there are celebrities who have done really awful things in the past. These moments are dug up by the hungry individuals of Twitter and are put on blast for their behavior. Some of these “call-out” moments have ended in people “cancelling” these celebrities, meaning they no longer support them or follow them. Cancelling someone essentially means that they are irrelevant in that person’s eyes. Whether you think someone is “cancelled” or not is purely your decision.
There are many questions as to why this has become such a popular movement. Why is call-out culture so popular? Should we move past things that people have done in their history if they have proven that they have moved beyond that behavior? Do we as a society think that calling people out, being violent and bullying people is going to make advances in a positive way? Is this how our society moves past things, and how cultural advances are made? While all of these questions are not easily answered, they all depend on personal ethics. Former President Barack Obama addressed call-out culture in a great way. “People love to feel like they are politically woke. People who do really good stuff have flaws. People who you are fighting may love their kids. One danger I see among young people, particularly on college campuses, is that I get a sense that the way of them making change is to be as judgmental as possible about other people. If I tweet or hashtag about how you didnt do something right, then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself. That’s not activism and that’s not bringing about change. If all you’re doing is casting stones, you are probably not going to get that far because that is really easy to do.”
https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/is-cancel-culture-bad-for-culture
There will always be fake news that circulates on Twitter, but you get to formulate your own opinion on what you believe. Do your research and find out what you believe for yourself. There is a way to educate someone in a kind way. People aren’t always receptive to listen, but one thing that you can always control is what you say. There are many people who are closed off to new ideas and different ways of thinking. Sometimes, we have to pick our battles and move on. People want to be seen as intelligent and “woke”, which is why people call others out. They may feel insecure about themselves, so they call out other people to make themselves feel better. Bringing about change in a positive way means so much more than calling people out for what they have done wrong. Effective change means educating others in a way that evokes empathy. Understanding the other side can bring a different perspective that you may not have thought of. Being kind and listening can sometimes make more of an impact then trying to win an argument. Reference: Urban Dictionary (UD). (2019). Retrieved from: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=call%20out%20culture