In late 2017 a new phenomenon by the name of ‘cancel culture’ began slowly making its way into mainstream social media. It took the world by storm however in 2018. The term ‘cancel culture’ refers to the very public boycott of a person for either questionable acts they or unpopular opinions they share. Usually when it comes to cancel culture in this day the line between calling someone out for something wrong and harassing them is very blurred.

Now, don’t get me wrong, when someone does something wrong they definitely need to come clean about it. What is so toxic about cancel culture however is that people will essentially ruin someone else’s life/career all because of something that they said when they were younger. Especially with the celebrities in this day and age people online will dig up whatever they can just to tear another person down. In some cases many people aren’t even given the chance to explain themselves before they are shunned by public opinion. On a brighter note there are cases where people are able to bounce back after all the backlash, like famous youtuber ‘Pewdiepie’ afer a clip of him using a racial slur was spread over social media. When it comes to this so called ‘cancel culture’ all it does is create animosity and support harassment online.

 A lot of times ‘cancellers’ blatantly ignore context in a situation simply for the sake of cancelling someone. It’s completely wrong the lengths some of these people go just because someone may have said or done something they didn’t like. Sure, in some cases people get caught doing vile things and therefore should be blacklisted, like the Kevin Spacey scandal. Sometimes ‘cancelling’ simply means that they’re simply bringing to light an accusation against a person. Along with cancel culture however it could take the hate out of social media. In some cases people say ‘canceled’ just for fun and jokes. There are other times however where it crosses a line and becomes harassment. For the most part though what everyone needs to do is simply take responsibility for their actions and not destroy others for what they have done in the past. If you’re gonna cancel someone though at least get all the facts beforehand. You never know just how bad you could hurt someone’s career or life when you ‘cancel’ them. I feel like for how fast things are changing and what is going on in the world today that this ‘cancel culture’ shouldn’t even be this big of a problem. Why are we so concerned over the fact that James Charles supported another brand over his best friend? 

At the end of the day everyone knows that they have done things in the past that maybe weren’t the best ideas. We simply learn from our mistakes and mature. With people digging up whatever they can on a person just for ‘tea’ the world becomes such a toxic environment. A lot of times ‘cancel culture’ is used to discredit another persons’ work. It is selfish beyond belief and it’s time to put an end to cancel culture. Unless someone has done something incredibly horrible then there should be no need to shut everything they do down. All cancel culture does is divide people and cause tension. It is just a petty excuse to start drama. In my humble opinion, for there to be a decrease in this so called ‘cancel culture’ then people need to end the drama between everyone and simply let the past be in the past.