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The effects of cancel culture.
Nov. 20th, 2020 01:17 pmTaken from the Crunchy Questions Meme:
How can we eradicate the current state of "cancel culture" without taking away the concept of people taking accountability of their wrongful/hurtful actions and behaviors?
I don't think the answer is going to be that simple, since it's become so ingrained among online culture at this point that it'll be impossible to immediately eradicate it. Instead, it'll be more of a gradual shift in correcting the behaviors and mindsets from those who misuse and misunderstand the concept and redirecting the main purpose of accountability.
In theory, the act of cancelling of someone is meant to convey a strong sense that people are displeased with a person's actions, usually a celebrity or someone within the entertainment industry, that they no longer support them unless they take accountability for those actions and are deeply remorseful. It's supposed to help the person see their errors, and allow them to learn and grow and become a better person in the process. Ideally, that's what it's supposed to be about. In practice, however, it's become more or less about attacking an individual someone doesn't like or has a personal vendetta against. That is the real problem with cancel culture, it's not about wanting someone to take responsibility for their actions and learn from their mistakes but to just take them down and destroy their lives and careers. And with how quickly misinformation can spread on social media, this can be very damaging especially when there's no concrete evidence, and most people who see a hashtag will not bother to fact-check but just blindly believe what they see through various accounts repeating the same information.
I also think that, with how not every situation is the same, it all depends on the level of what offense an individual has committed, it requires a lot of nuance and sensitivity at approaching them but let's be honest, most of the Internet is not nearly mature enough to handle that with the care it deserves. Most of "cancel culture" is run purely on high emotions and being reactionary and not so much with maturity so it's no wonder there's a lot of defensive attitudes from the accused whenever it happens. And that is another part of the problem, by simply accusing someone isn't going to do anything. A hashtag isn't going to solve anything. Yes, people need to take responsibility for their wrongdoings and their punishment should fit accordingly, but it doesn't help matters when you have people yelling and dogpiling on social media.
I always think, when someone in your life does something wrong, do you act the same way you treat those who you're "cancelling" online? If the answer is no, then it's time to really take a step back and reevaluate how you approach things. (And this can be said about how you treat people online versus real life in general, really.)
As a whole, I don't think there's an easy solution to this problem. There's a lot of factors going into it that everyone, on all sides, needs to really step back and think about how we go about it. There's been a lot of discussions surrounding this very topic and I think we need to have more to really kind of figure it out along the way, since as I mentioned this will be a gradual shift and not immediate. I just hope that there is a shift in a more positive direction rather than the negative one we've been going towards over the years.
How can we eradicate the current state of "cancel culture" without taking away the concept of people taking accountability of their wrongful/hurtful actions and behaviors?
I don't think the answer is going to be that simple, since it's become so ingrained among online culture at this point that it'll be impossible to immediately eradicate it. Instead, it'll be more of a gradual shift in correcting the behaviors and mindsets from those who misuse and misunderstand the concept and redirecting the main purpose of accountability.
In theory, the act of cancelling of someone is meant to convey a strong sense that people are displeased with a person's actions, usually a celebrity or someone within the entertainment industry, that they no longer support them unless they take accountability for those actions and are deeply remorseful. It's supposed to help the person see their errors, and allow them to learn and grow and become a better person in the process. Ideally, that's what it's supposed to be about. In practice, however, it's become more or less about attacking an individual someone doesn't like or has a personal vendetta against. That is the real problem with cancel culture, it's not about wanting someone to take responsibility for their actions and learn from their mistakes but to just take them down and destroy their lives and careers. And with how quickly misinformation can spread on social media, this can be very damaging especially when there's no concrete evidence, and most people who see a hashtag will not bother to fact-check but just blindly believe what they see through various accounts repeating the same information.
I also think that, with how not every situation is the same, it all depends on the level of what offense an individual has committed, it requires a lot of nuance and sensitivity at approaching them but let's be honest, most of the Internet is not nearly mature enough to handle that with the care it deserves. Most of "cancel culture" is run purely on high emotions and being reactionary and not so much with maturity so it's no wonder there's a lot of defensive attitudes from the accused whenever it happens. And that is another part of the problem, by simply accusing someone isn't going to do anything. A hashtag isn't going to solve anything. Yes, people need to take responsibility for their wrongdoings and their punishment should fit accordingly, but it doesn't help matters when you have people yelling and dogpiling on social media.
I always think, when someone in your life does something wrong, do you act the same way you treat those who you're "cancelling" online? If the answer is no, then it's time to really take a step back and reevaluate how you approach things. (And this can be said about how you treat people online versus real life in general, really.)
As a whole, I don't think there's an easy solution to this problem. There's a lot of factors going into it that everyone, on all sides, needs to really step back and think about how we go about it. There's been a lot of discussions surrounding this very topic and I think we need to have more to really kind of figure it out along the way, since as I mentioned this will be a gradual shift and not immediate. I just hope that there is a shift in a more positive direction rather than the negative one we've been going towards over the years.
