Cancel Culture
A form of giving consequences for unfavorable actions or words over the internet
A form of giving consequences for unfavorable actions or words over the internet
Explanation
Due to the growing use of social media there has been a rise in exposure of those who have unpopular opinions or have done wrongful actions in the past that went unnoticed but are not seen as unacceptable in this day and age. The way this culture is mostly associated with people with power or mass recognition in the media such as celebrities or political leaders. There are groups of people who feel that such public figures should be held accountable for past or present actions and the way they do that is by exposing them on social media to sway the public opinion about them and hopefully ruin or tarnish their reputation to some extent. This has been effective in getting problematic people deplatformed and removed from social media as well as apology videos they make to try to regain sympathy from previous followers. I think this form of punishment, while useful for some time during covid when people spent the most time in history on their phones, is completely ineffective for actively punishing famous people in the long term. But this stance goes for people who, before being canceled, already have status and fame and money and even if they were being forced into hiatus probably wouldn't be affected much.
While I do think this method of punishment can prove to be very effective to the general public. In instances where this harmful information can be shared to a workplace or school faculty or families this can have a lot of major long term effects on someone's life and reputation. Moral of the story, Cancel Culture does its job on the right people.
The growth of cancel culture has expanded the horizons of the power of social media and how, with numbers, it can be just as easy as sending a hateful comment behind your phone screen that can influence how we think about each other.
Sources:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cancel%20culture
nytimes.com/2020/12/03/t-magazine/cancel-culture-history.html
https://www.verywellmind.com/the-mental-health-effects-of-cancel-culture-5119201
Bio
Mikayla Thomas is a current student at Sac City and is currently studying Criminal Psychology in hopes of becoming a School or Juvenile Psychologist. Born and raised in Sacramento California she has a very deep desire to travel and see the world, or at least different parts of the country with the hopes of broadening her life experiences while experiencing different cultures.