Over the past decade, society has developed a new idea: cancelling someone. Cancelling somebody means to dismiss them for an action they took and to stop supporting the person for good. Being politically correct and a role model for others has become increasingly important for all people, especially celebrities. Social media has been around for over a decade and now posts from celebrities past are coming back to bite them. This is seen with many popular artists and actresses posts on twitter resurfacing years later, but this does not only apply to celebrities. Anybody who is found to make any sort of convertsial or offense post can be “cancelled” to some extent.
It is evident that social media was the reason for this new concept. As people say, what you post online stays on the internet forever. There is no going back after pressing send. Should posting something on the internet demonstrate who one is as a person forever? The direction our society is heading in with teaching everyone the correct political terms is very good, and it should be taught to children everywhere how important being careful about what you post on social media is, and how much one’s words matter. But then again, if there is a mistake, should it risk one’s whole future?
What is the point you may ask? Researchers have said that cancelling someone for their actions brings people together. It creates a sense of unity that society will no longer stand for a certain kind of behavior. Feeling like you’ve shown people the new standard can be powerful. Our world is so politically divided that cancelling people, in an odd sense, brings everyone together. The problem with cancel culture is the toxic society that it has created. Cancel culture has completely taken away the opportunity for people to grow and learn from their mistakes. There is no longer room for mistakes.
For children, it seems very severe to permanently punish them for a mistake made while young, children should be allowed to make mistakes. Yes, some punishments should be more severe than others, but it should not be an universal punishment for everyone. Taking away the chance to prove you are a better person leaves no room for self improvement. Isn’t that what growing up is all about? The chance for kids to make mistakes and learn from them.
Naturally, celebrities are held at a higher standard. Many celebrities who have faced being cancelled are older. They have had time to grow and learn for their mistakes. But, for celebrities and even adults who have never faced any controversy before, why should their whole career be over in one day? When we read some of the career ending tweets or posts, they can be very harsh and offensive. But, like I said, being politically correct was never as prevalent as it is today. People were more offensive, but there was never any cancelling or standards. Even in the early 2000’s society’s standards were completely different. It is similar to how we learn about the awful things that happened or were said in history. So many things that we look at today as socially unacceptable were deemed as normal back then. It is very crazy and unsettling to think about, but it shows that just like people, our society has made immense progress. People should defiendly be held accountable for their actions, but it is very ruthless to rid them of a second chance. We now have society standards, that if you choose to go against, sometimes consequences are a necessity.
This all depends on the situation, certain mistakes should definitely have harsher punishments. And if the mistake is that bad, then sometimes people deserve to be cancelled. We see the excitement cancelling has brought to our society, and how we have to be more careful when distinguishing the difference between letting people accept and apologize verus cancelling. People cannot grow if they never get second chances.