“You’re Canceled!” Cancel Culture and its Social Implications

Cancel culture or call-out culture promotes withdrawing support for people or companies due to certain comments or actions but does it really achieve its goal?

With 3.8 billion users, social media have become a fundamental part of many people’s lives. They have impacted the way business, advertising, and even politics are managed. While they have many positive benefits, they also have adverse effects.

The cancel culture or “call-out culture” has recently emerged, a concept of withdrawing support or “canceling” a person who said or did something offensive or questionable. It is a type of group bullying, as many people are always ready to attack or disqualify someone else’s views. It is popularly used against people venting racist, homophobic, and sexist attitudes. It is such a large movement that several people have lost their jobs by being canceled, without the possibility of amending or fixing their actions, remaining forever enclosed in a bubble of public hatred.

One of the best-known cases is James Charles, a YouTuber who focused on providing makeup advice. He lost more than 3 million followers within days of being labeled a sexual predator by other creators, with no evidence of this, in a drama with his mentor, Tati Westbrook, also a YouTuber and vitamin entrepreneur. Another famous case is that of Harry Potter author J.K Rowlings, who made transphobic comments on Twitter.

Cancel culture is a phenomenon that has become so common that the term was the 2019 word or phrase of the year in the Australian Dictionary, Macquarie. Such actions or events as those mentioned above have intensified during the pandemic. Because people have remained home to avoid COVID-19 contagion, they spend more time using social media, which has resulted in many “cancelations.” Several content creators on YouTube and TikTok have been attacked for organizing or attending parties during the pandemic. Such public accusations are not limited to those who have thousands of followers. For example, on the Instagram platform, there are countless profiles reported and classified as “covidiots” (Covid idiots), people who break the quarantine.

Although the intention could be good, pointing out people who have done “something wrong” has risen to a very toxic extreme. One example is that of TikTok’s number one creator, sixteen-year-old Charli D’Amelio. She uploaded a YouTube video of a dinner with her parents, sister, and YouTuber James Charles, where the food was prepared by the famous chef Aaron May. The dishes they tried that night were snails, which were not to the D’Amelio sisters’ liking. When Charli commented that she wanted to reach 100 million followers a year to receive her first million, her remark annoyed her followers. Within days, she lost a million followers in TikTok.

What do young people think of call-out culture?

One of the biggest challenges that confront many young people face is being able to cancel someone effectively. One example is Chris Brown, a rapper who beat his girlfriend Rihanna in 2009; he remains popular because many enjoy his music, but they disagree with his actions.

In an article in the New York Times, several teenagers were interviewed on the subject. Ben, one of the 17-year-old interviewees, said that people have to be held accountable for their actions but supporting this culture prevents them from learning from their mistakes.

One of the biggest problems of the movement is that anyone has done or said ten years ago on social media to be found by anyone and used against them. This happened to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when photos of him came to light in 2001 with his face painted black. This is considered racist due to its historical connotation because, for a long time, white comedians painted their faces black to reinforce negative stereotypes of blacks and ridicule them. “We all do shameful things and make dumb mistakes and whatever. However, the existence of social media has taken it to a place where people can take something you did back then and turn it into who you are now,” says “L,” one of the interviewees.

Some young people see the culture of cancelation as a potential to grow and learn more about what is politically correct; nevertheless, many see it as a problematic practice because of its impact on society.

One of the young women interviewed in the New York Times article commented that canceling someone is like beating and insulting someone instead of patiently educating them about what they did wrong, not allowing them to demonstrate that they can improve. Many other young people agree that people need to understand their mistakes rather than torture them, permitting open dialogues instead of banishing people.

The cancel culture has created Internet censorship; it provokes fear of making a mistake on social media and being “canceled” for it. It generates a lack of interest in understanding other people’s opinions, demonstrating that only the masses’ view matters. If someone thinks differently or made a mistake years ago, their reputation can be destroyed.

Fighting cancel culture in the classroom

Professor Loretta J. Ross proposes to combat cancel culture through a class at Smith College. She seeks to challenge her students to identify the characteristics and limitations of the movement. “What makes me the most impatient is calling people on something they said when they were teenagers, but they are 55 now. I mean, we all did foolish things at some point when we were teenagers, right?” she commented in an interview for the New York Times.

For her, the solution is to call their attention privately rather than publicly, “doing it with love.” If an acquaintance did something offensive, instead of broadcasting it on social media to be canceled, send them a private message or call them to discuss it. This can lead to a conversation, putting what happened in context and becoming an educational moment.

Her classes include the example of Natalie Wynn, a YouTuber who developed a kind of taxonomy after being canceled several times. In her video, she explains how the culture of cancelation takes a story and transforms it into a different situation. There is the presumption of guilt without the facts, as was the case with James Charles. She also explains that p
art of the movement is essentialism, which is when criticism of the mistake makes that person a bad person because of the pseudo-intellectualism or moral superiority of whom they accuse; there is subsequent contamination or guilt by association.

For example, returning to J.K Rowlings, several of Professor Ross’s students admitted that they felt guilty about being fans of the series after Rowlings’ comments, exemplifying that guilt by association is a prevalent thing. One student admitted that she gets stressed about buying a sweatshirt with a picture of a band she likes for fear that they have done something offensive and does not know that the band has been canceled. Students wonder how to effectively call attention to private errors in these situations, even more so with a public figure. “You can’t be responsible for someone else’s inability to grow,” Professor Ross explained. “So take comfort in the fact that you offered a new perspective on the information, and you did so with love and respect, and then walk away.”

Although cancel culture seems not to be going away and can be well-intended, as long as it keeps going to the extremes of not accepting or allowing the people who are its targets to grow, it will remain a toxic movement that leads to no good. Courses and ways of thinking like Professor Ross’ are necessary to combat this problem and teach new generations to dialogue privately; in this age where everything is public on social media, this is more important than ever.

Have you heard of cancel culture? What does someone need to do to deserve to be canceled? Once someone is canceled, should they be forgiven? Let us know in your comments below.

Translation by Daniel Wetta.

Paulette Delgado

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This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0