Just How Toxic Is Cancel Culture?
A commentary on how concepts like ridicule and ostracisation have been fused together into one deadly weapon.
The idea of cancelling someone isn’t new. It’s been around since ancient civilisation and was commonly known as exile. Back then, a fear of being shunned from society served as a deterrent against crime.
Ostracisation acted as a form of social control against deviating norms. Today, cancel culture poses a big risk on how we socialise the next generation of thinkers.
A few decades ago, a person would only be judged offline — meaning the real world. Their comments would be (mostly) temporary. Now, with social media, such shaming is left permanent and even categorised in hash tags.
A someone has to do is punch in a few words and they can read a whole stream of consciousness filled with derogatory statements.
This is the definition of toxicity.
Information can pass through a computer and into the hands of anybody who has an opinion in a matter of seconds. A person can be cyber bullied based entirely on hearsay.
Artificial Intelligence is capable of manipulating faces and videos to make it seem like someone has said something they haven’t. This includes generating fake news, exaggerated facts and even conspiracy theories. This leaves those who have garnered fame in a pretty vulnerable position, putting a strain on their mental health.
It’s also worrying how harsh it is to cancel someone — almost like the intention is to pull them out of existence for expressing their opinion or for their mistakes. After all, we are human and prone to mistakes. We live through trial and error. To boycott someone’s work or products is one thing, but to ridicule them is another thing altogether. The latter makes both parties wrong which makes the whole cancel culture counter intuitive.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, some people definitely need to be called out on their behaviour. Especially when that person has the power to shape millions of lives.
But where do we draw the line? Those on the receiving end get trapped between two alternatives. Either apologise once and move on which may come across as insincere. Or continually apologise for their mistakes, which can lead towards some form of repression.
On a plus side, the joining up of social media and cancel culture has helped us give exposure to big social issues. Victims now have a platform to voice their stories and help protect others from enduring similar traumas.
There is a certain power that we have when people come together as a mass. Twitter gives the public a way of expressing their concerns on what they find disagreeable amongst common thought which is all useful data.
Thankfully, the toxicity of cancel culture can be cancelled out by itself with a bit of mindfulness. We need to consider whether structures should be in place to avoid ‘cancel culture’ becoming ‘destroy that persons’ life’ culture.
Words are powerful things. They work both ways. Those calling out and cancelling others should be cautious of how such words are harming the way they perceive the world, fostering a sense of animosity in their everyday lives.
