The celebrity spotlight has long doubled as a lens into the lives of those we watch on the big stage, whether it is actors and actresses in films, comedians in docuseries, or artists in the music industry. When one of these celebrities is involved in a scandal or accusation, their careers are often put on hold due public backlash and ridicule, for a period of time, some for a few months and others for a few years, only to have a resurgence in popularity afterwards, their recent social crimes seemingly are forgotten. However, modern times, namely 2019 and onward, have seen a surge in the boycotting of public figures, often for “crimes” they either didn’t commit or for acts that weren’t a crime at the time they were committed. This boycotting is what’s now known as “cancel culture” and has taken Facebook and Twitter particularly, by storm, leaving countless public figures and celebrities in its wake. Here is what cancelling culture is all about and why it is toxic.
What is Cancel Culture?
The term cancel culture refers to the popular practice of mass boycotting celebrities, public figures, companies, brands, or regular individuals, who have done or said something that is either objectionable, offensive, or wrong. The practise involves the withdrawing of support (cancelling) of the person or persons and is performed by group shaming on social media platforms. The idea behind the cancelling culture is to hold the person or persons accountable for their misdeed by calling them out or posting about their wrongdoing on social media. The misdeed can be anything from a mere unproven accusation, allegations, to full-blown incidents that happened in the past.
How is Cancel Culture Mentality Toxic to Us?
While the cancel culture intention is to have the individual admit their mistake, which can lead to growth and awareness, the way in which cancel culture is performed is what makes it toxic. Not only is it ineffective at holding a person accountable, more often than not, but the act of calling the person out also turns into a scenario where there is a lot of judgement and shaming without any fact-checking or room for redemption. Here is how it can be toxic to us.
It teaches that if someone does something wrong, you just stop supporting them completely, regardless of whether they apologize or not. This mentality is very rigid or “black and white” and leaves no room to form an opinion, have understanding, or encourage admittance of wrongdoing.
It is ineffective because it does not promote the correction of behaviours. No one is going to ask for growth or offer an apology if they know that they will continue to get backlash. Cancel culture offers no room for common courtesy and acknowledgement that mistakes happen because we are human.
It does not allow us to give others a second chance. It does not promote forgiveness or empathy.
Those with past wrongdoings walk on eggshells because they are so afraid that an incident, allegation, or accusation will resurface from years prior and tank their entire career. This beats down their mental health, allows anxiety to fester, and in extreme cases, can be a catalyst for depression.
Cancel culture isolates the individual or individuals from a support network, causing trauma and taking away their ability to analyze the mistake and learn from it.
Beyond these reasons, cancel culture is too keen to completely ruin lives over mistakes, misdemeanours, and allegations that happened years prior. Rather than giving the individual the grace for years of proper etiquette and recognition for changing their behaviour or owning up to their mistake, cancel culture on Twitter and Facebook is instead too quick to judge. While it is good to hold businesses, individuals, and brands accountable for wrong actions, calling for their cancellation often goes too far.