How Cancel Culture Cancelled Us
[Applause]
let’s start off with an unpopular
opinion
just because you have the option to
voice your opinion on social media
doesn’t mean you should
i have anxiety i have for as long as i
can remember and the constant dependency
of my generation on social media
hasn’t made it any easier the fact that
i can go online and see the thoughts and
feelings of people all around the world
dating back to 2006 on twitter is
terrifying but i participate i have to
social media is no longer optional for
the average teenager
according to the us department of health
and human services in partnership with
the pew research center
71 of teenagers are active on more than
one social media site
as a member myself of instagram snapchat
twitter facebook tick tock and
occasionally tumblr
i’m terrified that i make a mistake and
potentially ruin my life forever
with the internet the stakes are high
and they’re constantly getting higher
from a young age we’re taught that
technology is permanent
but as we get older and as it becomes
more and more central to society
that becomes difficult to believe
social media is more than just a place
to watch cooking videos and post cute
pictures
it’s a source of news social
gratification validation
and entertainment but as the years have
gone on it’s
the negatives have begun to outweigh the
positives what used to be a place to
spread your ideas and make your voice
heard has become a hotbed for negativity
to be spread
the worst thing to come out of this new
era of social media
is cancel culture canceled culture comes
from the idea that
when you’re online and you call someone
after their mistakes you are
cancelling them the culture part just
goes to show that this term has had such
staying power over the past few years
that it’s become an inherent part
of the online community someone’s always
being cancelled by someone
sometimes it lasts sometimes it doesn’t
but very few have stopped to ask the
question
what is this actually doing to our
society and how is it affecting our
empathy
to really get a good look into this
topic we have to look at where it
started
who’s been affected by by it and
what has fed it to the point that it’s
become a culture at all
a reasonable place to start would be the
1940s many americans were terrified
because the red scare that sparked fear
in their hearts that russians were right
under their noses
some following the lead of senator
joseph mccarthy began to blacklist
activists artists and people who
generally subverted the culture of the
day
among these were arthur miller the faint
playwright
art actor and director charlie chaplin
and civil rights advocate w.e.b
dubois the main vehicle
of cancellation is generally social
media with twitter being seen
as the court of public opinion where
people are tried
and sentenced in hashtags on the daily
among those who have been cancelled in
the 20th and early 21st century include
but are definitely not limited too yoko
ono
the dixie chicks bill gates michael
jackson kanye west
taylor swift nearly every member of the
online beauty community
justin bieber kanye west again
chris pratt jk rowling cardi b
camila cabello and recently nearly every
member of the british royal family
in many of these cases the event in
question
happened years before the actual
internet backlash
this has put the entire internet into
the mindset that contrary to what every
motivational poster you’ve ever seen
says you can never change you are
defined by your mistakes
it will never get better this
is toxic of course and it’s one of the
main issues with cancer culture
but it’s not the only one to cancel
someone is inherently permanent
it’s something that any permanent it’s
something that you wait out and log off
and just take a step back from but
on the internet everything is supposed
to be permanent right
if something is so important that it
causes you to cancel someone
why why is it that the actual real life
consequences are so few and far between
this is an unknown a thought experiment
that didn’t exist in its current form 50
or even 10 years ago
this is probably why so many people in
power have brushed cancer culture aside
saying that it’s not relevant or
sometimes that it doesn’t exist at all
and
it’s a figment of the imagination of the
youths some people also say that it’s
not important
this mindset is frankly irresponsible
and just goes to show the empathy level
of our society today
people think that because they’re online
they can say or do whatever they want
without any ramifications
in their real life unfortunately this is
generally true
but it shouldn’t be you shouldn’t be
able to say whatever you want online
without any ramifications
you can cite the constitution however
many times you want but there will never
be a reason to be hateful to someone
else online no matter who they are
or what they have done cancel culture
takes the mob mentality that someone has
done something wrong and deserves to be
punished
and combines it with the overall mindset
that a cloud of negativity should
surround one person for the rest of
their lives
this is what should be cancelled how can
we ever expect people to
get up and try again and try to
contribute to our society if we knock
them down in the first place
the very idea of being cancelled on the
internet is terrifying
the fact that people all around the
world could see the speech that i am
giving
right now and could on a whim make a
mean comment or undermine my entire
approach without
research or quant or context was enough
for me to consider not even doing this
today
but here i am here out in front of my
friends
teachers parents colleges
future employers the entire world
because i have something to say
and the sad part is that i have a
performance background
i generally do better in front of 100
people than i do one
some people people with bright minds and
great ideas that could help our society
aren’t as lucky the very notion
that people would discourage them or
make fun of their ideas enough to make
them stay silent
how can we ever grow as a society how
can we ever
hear all of the ideas that would allow
us to change if people are afraid to
speak because of the
online community that we have created
our culture is on the brink
of a social issue
and the anonymity that the online
community allows
is part of what is contributing to it
if individuals people like you and me
don’t take ownership of what they say
online and don’t realize that what you
say
hurts more on just as much on a screen
as it does in person
then we will never grow and we will
never change
if we allow cancer culture to be a part
of our culture and a mark that we leave
on the world
we will be doing a disservice not only
to ourselves but to our grandchildren
and their grandchildren and generations
beyond
i’m 16 not old enough to drink not old
enough to vote not even considered a
legal
adult but i can see the future
ramifications that our
existence online could have on our
society
i can see the difference in the ways
that my peers treat each other online
and in person and i have seen
people become less open by the day
you may think this is silly and
unimportant with all the issues that are
going on in the world today
but if you look at how the internet
culture is changing
the youth the youth and the other
generations of the world
you’ll see that this issue is something
that needs to be addressed
how well first of all we need to stop
cancelling and start educating
there need to be less hashtags and a
more open and
understanding mindset all around if we
adopt a growth mindset as a society and
allow people to correct their mistakes
instead of just canceling them we know
no limits call me naive
call me inexperienced but i have seen
the way people shut down when they are
criticized i’ve seen how they open up
and try to be better when they are
lovingly encouraged into the right
direction
even just a kind word or an open-minded
comment could
help someone to realize that what they
did was wrong and they need to correct
it we can start this by changing the way
our children treat each other in person
we need to take the word punishment out
of our
vocabulary and get rid of the mindset
the mistakes are akin to stupidity
in the field of psychology punishment is
actually generally
discouraged because it doesn’t allow you
to correct the behavior
it only leaves the recipient to run away
and retreat into a defensive position
if we raise the next generation with a
mindset of reinforcement if we
reward good behavior and if we correct
bad behavior as well as monitor our
presence online
hopefully this near epidemic of social
crisis
and negative comments and bad actions
will be over soon
so the next time you see cancel-worthy
content online take a minute before you
like
share upvote or retweet and think
kindness
empathy and try to remember a time that
you have made a mistake
by not clicking that button you could
potentially be bringing us one step
closer to a safer and more welcoming
version of the internet we have today
thank you